The Dublin Docklands Authority has had discussions with all the third-level facilities in Dublin with a view to establishing a saolscoil - a "learning for life" initiative - according to Gerry Kelly, the authority's director of social programmes.

As a result, the authority is working closely with the NCI (formerly the NCIR) to establish a third-level college in the Docklands. The fact that the NCI has agreed to establish a centre for educational access and community development and to quit its Ranelagh campus in favour of a dockland site rather than simply provide an outreach programme is regarded as "a tremendous spur to the local community", Kelly says. The Dublin Docklands Authority envisages that the NCI will operate on the northside of the River Liffey, while TCD will run its centre on the southside. "We hope that what TCD is doing on the southside could be complemented by what the NCI is doing on the northside," he says.

Although there is no time-scale attached to the NCI initiative, it is understood that the development of concrete proposals and Government funding will be required before the project can go ahead. The fact that the NCI is in the frame is no deterrent to the Trinity project, TCD provost Dr Tom Mitchell says. "The more people tackling educational disadvantage the better," Mitchell argues. Many of the TCD initiatives - TAP for example - are citywide. "We see our brief as wider than the docklands, but we also want to create an outreach centre in that part of the docklands that is closest to us. We believe that our community centre is a completely new approach."