Veterinary school to be moved to Belfield campus

The Republic's only veterinary school, currently located in Ballsbridge, Dublin, is to have a new home at UCD's Belfield campus.

The president of University College Dublin, Dr Art Cosgrove, yesterday announced the move after the Department of Education agreed to provide £12 million funding for the £27m relocation project.

Planning permission for the school has already been granted by Dun Laoghaire-Rathdown County Council. It is expected construction will begin early next year and will be completed in 2002.

Prof Michael Monaghan, the dean of the faculty, said the decision was a relief after years of campaigning and fund-raising for a new integrated veterinary medicine school.

"Quality is what concerned us most as we were really dealing with quite primitive facilities. We have also been isolated from other scientific colleges from a research point of view and have been separated from a pool of expertise that will now be available to us at Belfield."

Established in October 1900, originally as the Royal Veterinary College of Ireland, the Ballsbridge school used to house separate Trinity College Dublin and UCD veterinary facilities until the two merged in 1977. As time passed, it became increasingly apparent that the small city-centre site was unsuitable for animal treatment, and two years ago the Veterinary Council recommended the school be closed.

Since then it "has been held together by remedial works", said Prof Monaghan. He added: "It is a huge boost to be going to a suitable location instead of being sandwiched between two hotels."

The Belfield school will be built next to the campus science departments, close to the Stillorgan Road. Covering 14,000 sq metres in total, the two main buildings will include classrooms, laboratories, clinics, animal surgeries and operating theatres.

The construction cost will be part-funded by the sale of the 2.1-acre Ballsbridge site, which is owned by the Office of Public Works. Last March a two-acre private site next to the school was sold for an estimated £10 million.

In making the essential funds available, Dr Cosgrove said, the Government "is acknowledging the pre-eminence of veterinary involvement in interdisciplinary research in biology and food safety".