Changes in administering Irish College in Paris are announced

The Minister for Foreign Affairs, Mr Cowen, yesterday announced important changes in the administration of the Irish College in Paris.

The replacement of five of seven Irish members of the Fondation Irlandaise which governs the college coincides with the beginning of major renovations funded by the Office of Public Works.

When he announced the project last May, the Minister of State with responsibility for the OPW, Mr Martin Cullen, said the restored college "is intended to be a major cultural and educational centre for the benefit of the Irish nation and to become a flagship building in the heart of Europe, providing a vision, profile and personality of Ireland".

The new board members include Mr Jean Bijasson, an expert on property management who lives in Paris with his Irish wife. The Fondation owns property in the Latin Quarter and in western Paris, and his knowledge will be valued in administering them.

The appointment of Ms Jennifer Campbell, the chairwoman of the Linen Hall Library in Belfast, shows the desire to encompass all of Ireland in the college and to bring women into its management. Mr Patrick MacEntee SC, Mr Seamus Crimmins, the head of Lyric FM, and Mr Patrick O'Connor, Ireland's Ambassador to Paris, are the other new members.

The vice-president of St Patrick's College Maynooth, Father Hugh Connolly, remains secretary of the Fondation. Mr William Glynn, a retired banker with Ulster Bank, will continue to act as its treasurer. Mr Glynn, who played a central role in obtaining £7 million in funding from the OPW, will also oversee a new management board in charge of the daily running of the college, which is scheduled to reopen in autumn 2002.

In conjunction with a paid consultant, the management board will draft a job description for the future chief executive of the college and define a strategy to transform it into an active cultural centre.

Mr Cowen thanked the outgoing members of the board, Dr F.J. O'Reilly, the Rev Prof Brendan Devlin, Prof Proinsias Mac Cana, Mr Gerard Walsh and Mr Joseph Linders for their contribution to its rehabilitation.

The college is an architectural treasure built in 1769. It is Ireland's most valuable property abroad, but Dublin's hold on the building was weakened in the last century, first because of anti-clerical feeling in France, then because it was occupied by Polish priests who were survivors of Dachau. Mgr Brendan Devlin, who remains college rector, began working in the 1980s to return it to Irish control.