Thomas Gould
Question:870. Deputy Thomas Gould asked the Minister for Further and Higher Education, Research, Innovation and Science to provide an update on the college campus on the north side of Cork city. [54812/23]
View answerTuesday, 12 December 2023
Questions (870)
Written answers
I have not been made aware of any plans to develop a new campus on the north side of Cork city. However, my Department is willing to work collaboratively with all higher education institutions and Education and Training Boards on the development of capital projects in line with their established masterplans.
My Department is currently supporting a number of key ongoing major capital projects in Cork city, including a new Learning Resource Centre on the MTU Cork Campus, which is part of the Higher Education Public Private Partnership Programme, and a major upgrade project to the 1970s Building on the MTU Cork Campus Bishopstown. UCC has been approve for funding of €50 million under the Higher Education Strategic Infrastructure Fund, €25m to co-fund a custom-built Business School in Cork city centre and €25m to co-fund the Kane Science Building Redevelopment project. Under the TSSPF programme call, I was delighted to announce on the 4th December that MTU's application in respect of a proposed upgrade, repurposing and extension to facilities at the Bishopstown Campus has been successful in the second stage of the assessment process and will now move to the next stage, ‘approval in principle’ with permission to appoint a design team. This proposal will provide core teaching facilities in the areas of Business, Humanities, Engineering, Science, Health and Wellbeing, Tourism.
In addition to the above funding programmes, I also announced in 2022 a programme call for the Further Education and Training Sector - College of the Future Major Projects Fund. This programme call will support the implementation of the vision set out in the Further Education Strategy. Cork ETB's application for its Bishopstown campus for the development of a FET College of the future to act as a focal point for all FET services in Cork incorporating a new Digital FET Centre has been successful in the first stage of the assessment process and has moved to the next stage of proposal development. This stage entails the development of a Preliminary Business Case (PBC), The deadline for submission of completed PBC’s for all relevant ETBs including Cork ETB will take place in Q1 2024. To date, as a short term measure the Government has approved in principle a total of up to €61m in funding to unlock the development of circa 1,000 purpose-built student accommodation beds across a number of higher education institutions. The Department is also engaged closely with UCC, to identify and assess potential projects in Cork. In addition, investment was announced to support the TUs, including MTU, in conducting an activation feasibility assessment to ascertain student accommodation needs in campus locations.