RCSI gets go-ahead for new €80 million city centre medical education facility

The Royal College of Surgeons in Ireland (RCSI) has received planning permission for the development of an €80 million state-of-the-art educational facility in Dublin city centre.

The eight-storey building, which will total more than 120,000sq ft in size, is to be built on York Street, adjacent to the college’s campus on St Stephen’s Green.

Minister for Education Ruairí Quinn is to lay the foundation stone for the new medical education facility later this month. Work on the redevelopment project, one of the largest in the city centre in recent years, will begin in September. The facility is expected to open in September 2016.

At least 100 jobs will be created in teaching and administration roles with the development.

Training suite
The facility will contain a surgical and clinical training suite, including a mock operating theatre and clinical training wards. It will also include a 540-seat auditorium, a library spanning three floors and a sports hall.

The college is funding the development through savings accrued from student fees, philanthropic donations, rental income from investment properties it owns in Dublin city centre, and a loan.

Since 2000, RCSI has spent €67 million of its own funds on capital and building projects in Ireland, including an education and research centre at Beaumont Hospital and a new facility on the site of Waterford Regional Hospital.

RCSI chief executive Cathal Kelly said that while the new facility would enable it to take on additional students, this was only one factor behind the college's decision to invest in the building.

“Our strategy is to attract international students to Ireland and we’re operating in what is a very competitive marketplace. The only way an institution like the RCSI can do this effectively is to become really focused on health sciences and to differentiate ourselves through the quality of what we do and that includes our teaching, our technology and our facilities.”

The college educates approximately 2,100 undergraduates and 1,800 postgraduates and trainees annually. It employs more than 1,000 staff in the capital.

Mr Kelly said the new facility would be good both for the college and for Dublin.