A State agency set up to redevelop a north inner city Dublin site into a university campus is to be given the power to develop more infrastructure projects under a proposal being considered by the Cabinet today.
The Grangegorman Development Agency was established in 2005 to redevelop the 73-acre former St Brendan’s Hospital site into the Technological University (TU) Dublin Grangegorman campus.
The campus welcomed its first 1,000 students in September 2014 and development continued. By 2023, when two €220 million buildings were opened, about 10,000 TU Dublin students were based at Grangegorman. Further developments, including a new 20,000sq m West Quad, are planned for the same site.
Minister for Further and Higher Education James Lawless is to seek Cabinet approval for legislation that would expand the remit of the existing agency and allow it to develop other major capital investment projects beyond the Grangegorman campus.
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It would mean that Lawless’ department would have a permanent national capital project agency under its remit. The agency would be expected to lead the Further Education and Training College Major Capital Programme, under which there are plans to spend €800 million over the next decade updating and building college campuses across the State.
Under the plan, the Government would be able to rely more on the agency and less on external consultants to develop higher education infrastructure projects.
The development of the Grangegorman campus has been one of the largest capital infrastructure investments in higher education in Ireland in recent decades.
An academic hub and library, which sits at the heart of the Grangegorman campus, finally opened to staff and students this summer. The building, which had been estimated to cost more than €70 million, had originally been expected to open in late 2024.
The agency has often used the sale of former campus properties to fund developments in Grangegorman. The West Quad development, which is reported to cost €120 million, will allow it to sell the existing TU Dublin building on Aungier Street, Dublin 2.
Earlier this year, The Currency reported that the development of the West Quad was on a temporary pause because “current commercial property market conditions are not optimal”.
