Pages 16 & 17

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accommodation, to take one example, "wholly inadequate"; of the
Earlsfort Terrace restaurant they say "The crowding we saw is hardly
to be believed." In thier final summary, speaking of all the Colleges, they
say that "already break-down point has almost been reached" (p. 127).

The Commissioners, examining our estimate of space requirement
in relation to the space provided in economically planned English
and Danish universities, find that it is entirely reasonable; they say, indeed,
that our estimate is in general "modest", and that in respect of research
facilities we have not asked enough (p. 25). The Report shows clearly
that the College has not sought any extravagant or grandiose expansion
at the expense of the State and the taxpayer; as the Commissioners put
it, we have asked for "no more than the space for the job" (p. 126).

Having satisfied themselves that our space estimates were reasonable,
the Commissioners set themselves to consider where the neccessary
additional space could be found. They seem to have thought at first
that our decision to abandon our central site and our present main
buildings at Earlsfort Terrace was needless and unwise. It was fortunate
that they refused to take our conclusions on trust and went over the
whole problem independently and thoroughly, because this means
that an all-important question has been absolutley and finally settled.
The Commissioners fairly soon saw that the whole College could not
be built on the Iveagh Gardens, even in very tall blocks. They then
investigated the entire district in quest of ground that might be added
to the site, but they found that little could be counted on unless there
were compulsory acquisition. They went so far as to calculate that, in
the unlikely event of compulsory powers being granted, the maximum
total of the ground that could be hoped for would be twenty-one acres.
Visits to other universities convinced then that this, while costing at least
L400,00 (p. 31) and causing great disturbance to homes and business,
would be too little to provide "a proper and final solution"(p. 34).
They observe that those British universities which have decided to
remain within their cities, Manchester and Liverpool, had to do so
because the only outer sites available were in one case fifteen miles and
in the other seven miles from the centre.

The Commissioners are very definite in their rejection of any solution
that would leave a part of the College at Earsfort Terrace and a part

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in Merrion Street, and provide for the rest of Belfield. As the whole
College cannot possible be built at Earlsfort Terrace, the whole College
must be built somewhere else. To divide the College, they say, would
"make it less than a university, and seriously affect the quality of the
graduates" (p. 34). They then urge that the transfer of the College
should be as rapid as possilbe, so as to re-establish its unity in its new
home (p. 38).1 On p. 37 they accept the view that the present buildings
of the College will be useful for government purposes. This, of course,
carries the implication that the total transfer of the College will cost no
more, or little more, than a solution which, while dispersing the College,
would provide it with the same amound of space. In its rejection of the
notion that the College ought to be satisfied to be given buildign here
and therem the Report vindicates the decisions of successive Governing
Bodies of the College.

Having concluded that the College should move out, the Commis-
sioners found no difficulty in giving approval to the Belfield site; they
"have little doubt that it would not now be possible to find a site as
suitable" (p. 34). They are not daunted by the fact that it is two and a
half miles from St. Stephen's Green; they know, as do the authorities of
the College, that there must be come incovenience and some loss in
moving away from the centre, but as they also realise that the move is
essential to the whole well-being of the College, they waste no time in
useless regrets.

The Commissioners insist that needs so urgent should be provided
for with the least possible delay, and propose ten years as the period
within which all their recommendations should be put into effet (p. 128).
They say too: "While interim relief of existing conditions would be
well warranted we do not recommend it. It is better in our opinion to
concentrate upon the radical solution which the accommodation problem
of the College requires" (p. 45). They add recommendations concern-
ing the administrative machinery and liaison between the College and
the government with the accomplishment of this great building
programme will require.

1 Actually, the College will then be unified, so far as it can be, for the first time. The distance between its present main centres at Earlsfort Terrace and Merrion Street, though only half a mile, has been found over the past thirty years to constitute quite a serious and troublsome division. Further disunity, not in all cases remediable, arises from the various locations of the Agriculture Faculty, the teaching Hospitals, the Dental Hospital, and the Veterinary College.