TCD IS SET to take the initiative in the slow race to build Ireland's first 50 metre swimming pool.

Provost Thomas Mitchell is anxious that the college should update its sporting facilities in the light of the KPMG report, which was critical of TCD's sports provision. The college has a site adjoining its new residences at Goldsmith Hall, on the corner of Pearse Street, and the site has now been earmarked for an £8 million sports centre, which may include a 50 metre pool.

Half of the total cost of the proposed development will have to be met by private donations, with a further £1 million coming from the Higher Education Authority. The balance, it is proposed, will be met by students through a £50 levy, to be approved in a referendum early in the next academic year.

Mitchell is keen to start work on the centre by late 1997, with a completion date in 1998 - though there hash been considerable scepticism - about the realism of such a construction plan. Meanwhile, student groups are pressurising the college to be given a say in the administration of the money raised by the levy, with one suggestion being to use; some of the money for current expenditure on student facilities - in order to allow students in their final years to reap some of the fruits of the levy before they graduate.