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that hitherto very little capital has been spent on the country's greatest
university institution, and that once this scheme is completed no such
expenditure will ever again be required. The benefits which the
country derives from the College must diminish if the task is any longer
postponed; but once it is begun, and as it progresses, these benefits
may be expected to increase and to repay their cost. Furthermore, to
fill a void left by the centuries, to create from its foundations a great
institution of learning in a country where learnig was so long forbidden,
is a work to excite the imagiation and to stimulate generosity. One
feels sure that so soon as the scheme has the saction and support of
Dail Eireann, there will be valuable help - perhaps in particular towards
the cost of research equipment and student amenities - forthcomming
from other sources, at home and abroad.

The new College will have an almost inestimable advantate simply
in being new. The students will move from overcrowded class-rooms, from dinginess and dilapidation, to space and brightness. We shall
profit by all the modern improvements in university design and equip-
ment, so that for the first time we can work on level terms with the rest
of the world. When the sudents can spend their entire day at Belfield,
their studies, sports, and social life all being centered there, they will
enjoy, though they may no actually reside on the campus, most of the
advantages of a residential univeristy. And in time it may be expected
that most of those whose homes are not in Dublin will be able to live
in hostels either on the campus or in close proximity to it.1

There need be no fear that the College will suffer in any way from
its newness, that it will be a raw or rootless institution. The College
is not a thing of yesterday, it can already stand on its reputation, at home
and abroad. Further, no good university can be new in the bad sense
of the owrd, since it deals with old and permanent things. As for tradition,
the college will still have behind it an unbroken academic history going
back to Newman and the Catholic Univeristy - a history always looking
to and preparing for such a fulfilment as now appears to be close at hand.
Behind that it will have, as it now has, the tradition of an ancient nation.

1 One of Archbishop Walsh's strongest complaints against the 1909 arrangement was that it included no provision for residence. Experience has shown that he was right in this matter. But it should be understood that the College makes no claim that the hostels whould be built or run at the cost of the taxpayer.

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IV. THE COMMISSION'S REPORT

The Commission on accommodations needs of the Constituent Colleges
of the National University of Ireland was appointed by the Minister for
Educaiton on the 26th September 1957. Its Chairman was Mr. Justice
Cearbhall O Dalaigh. Its Report was submitted to the government
and published in June 1959. On the 2nd June 1959, the following state-
ment was issued by the Government Information Bureau on behalf of the Department of Education:

The Minister for Education to-day presented to each House of the
Oireachtas the Report of the Commission appointed by him on 26th
September, 1957, to inquire into the accommodation needs of the con-
stituent colleges of the National University of Ireland.

The Report was submitted to the Minister in the form of three interim
reports and a final report dated as follows:

First Interim Report - University of College, Dublin - 6th June, 1958.
Second Interim Report - University of College, Cork - 8th October, 1958.
Third Interim Report - University College, Galway - 17th April, 1959.
Fourth and Final Report - General Considerations - 1st May, 1959.

Each report was signed by all members of the Commission, subject in the
case of University College, Dublin, to a reservation by one member, and in
the case of University College, Cork, to a reservation by another member.

Arising out of the urgent need for the immediate provision of additional accommodation for University College, Dublin, the Government have
specially considered the Commissin's recommendations in regard to the
erection of new buildings for the College and have agreed, in principle,
subject to t he approval of Dail Eireann, that the College should be
transferred gradually to a site in the College grounds on the Stillorgan
Road. The Minister intends to take an early opportunity of seeking the
approval of Dail Eireann in relation to the Government's proposal.

A decision will be taken by the Government in relation to other recom-
mendations of the Commission after further consideration, by the interests
concerned, of the Report in its entirety.

So far as University College, Dublin is concerned, the Report strongly
confirmed oth ou estimate of space requirements and our proposed
solution.

The Report states (p. 3) that all the Colleges have considerable needs,
but that those of University College, Dublin, "have now reached very serious dimensions indeed." On their visits to the College, the Commissioners found it "grossly overcrowded" (p. 22), and its library