The millionaire businessman, Dr Tony Ryan, and his three sons intend to open the doors of their new academy in west Dublin for entrepreneurs in September of next year, it was announced yesterday.
The T.A. Ryan Academy for Entrepreneurship at City West will target people in private firms, multinationals and State-owned companies and help them gain the management skills needed to implement their ideas.
About €4 million has been donated by Dr Ryan's three sons, and their academy will compete with other prominent business schools such as UCD's Smurfit School of Business at Carysfort in Dublin.
The academy will be managed by DCU, which will provide lecturing staff and award the degrees and possibly some of the other qualifications.
There will also be input from two prestigious US colleges, Columbia University in New York and Northeastern University in Boston. Davy Hickey Properties, which developed the City West campus, is providing the land for the academy.
The academy will form part of a new institute called Eeolas, which will team academics with business leaders in a collection of buildings and projects spread throughout the City West campus.
Columbia, DCU and Northeastern will also be part of this project, which will take shape in future years, with a particular emphasis on research.
Talks are also taking place with the University of Ulster about this project.
Making the announcement yesterday the Minister for Finance, Mr McCreevy, said: "This Government is keenly aware of the importance of a skilled workforce to the future growth of our economy.
"I congratulate all of the participants involved, in particular Dr Tony Ryan and his three sons, Cathal, Declan and Shane, whose vision has made this a reality.
"I applaud also DCU for its courage in moving outside the confines of its campus to provide an educational resource of excellence."
The Ryan academy will provide a range of courses, from short-term options to full degrees.
There is already fierce competition between business schools at UCD and Trinity College, and there are also intense marketing campaigns internationally by colleges to attract students.
The Ryan academy, which expects to have several hundred students studying at any one time, says one its attractions will be a chance for "peer networking" and assistance and mentoring from established entrepreneurs.