A new extension at Oatlands College is to be officially opened at the Stillorgan all-boys' school in south Dublin by the Minister of Public Enterprise, Mary O'Rourke, today. The project, paid for by a grant from the Department of Education, cost £670,000 and includes a technology laboratory, a home economics room and five classrooms.

According to the school's principal, Michael Madigan, the new extension will allow for an increase in students numbers to 600; currently there are 460 attending Oatlands. Work commenced on the project in June 1998.

"We carried out a survey on the school's current facilities and future needs, and we saw the need to prepare our pupils for a highly technological world," says Madigan, who sees the technology lab as an important addition to the school. The home economics room is included "to equip the modern young man to play a full part in the home as well as society", says the principal.