Change to rules only hope for school

THE long-awaited redevelopment of the Cork School of Music will not go ahead unless European finance rules are changed, Education Minister Noel Dempsey insisted yesterday.

"I don't want to contemplate the project not going ahead but if the rule remains the same and I want to go ahead with the Cork School of Music I will have to take 60m out of my first, second or third level budget and I don't have that," Mr Dempsey told the Oireachtas Education Committee.

Responding to intense criticism from numerous Cork TDs on the failure of the Public Private Partnership (PPP) scheme to complete the development, Mr Dempsey said he was determined to see the project finished, but had to deal with reality.