The new Irish Academy for the Performing Arts will be sited in Dublin City University, the Minister for Education, Dr Woods, confirmed yesterday.
This followed a report in this newspaper on Wednesday which cited the opinion of the academy's chairwoman, Ms Carmel Naughton, that the new institution would not necessarily go to DCU.
She said that the DCU site was the main one under consideration. However, she said it might be problematic for the new academy to establish its independence as a separate, degree-awarding institution if it were sited in DCU: "I think it's important it's seen as an independent college," she said.
She described the IAPA as "a new university for 21st-century Ireland." She hoped that an international architectural competition might be held to design the building. This formula was a huge success at the National Gallery, where, as chairwoman, Ms Naughton guided the Millennium Wing to completion.
Asked if the €44,440,832 (£35 million) the Government had allocated to the project in 1999 would be sufficient, she said: "You could build a nice building for £35 million."
The Department of Education will be responsible for the running of the college, which, said Ms Naughton, might offer "music, drama and dance, a foreign language, some sort of business training and technological training on how a stage actually works."
Dublin City University's press office said yesterday that it had been certain that IAPA would be located there for at least two years.
The Minister for Arts, Heritage, Gaeltacht and the Islands, Ms de Valera, made the plan public in December 1999.
The Taoiseach is known to favour the DCU site for the academy, which was first suggested as an option by a Deloitte and Touche report in 1999.
A report commissioned by the Taoiseach and the Ministers for Education and Arts in 1999 from Mr Peter Renshaw of the Guildhall School of Music and Drama in London also recommended the DCU site.
This report has become the blueprint for the proposed academy.
IAPA will also have at least two "nodes", as Dr Woods confirmed yesterday: one at the Institute of Choreography and Dance at Firkin Crane and one at the Irish World Music Centre at the University of Limerick.
Ms Naughton could not be contacted for comment yesterday afternoon.
She has been frustrated by the Department of Education's delay in making progress on IAPA.
She said that the board was meant to be in place in November, then in December and that although a February date had now been set for the announcement, it had not been made official.
Dr Woods did not mention any date in his statement yesterday, but said the board would be appointed "shortly."