Costello welcomes grangegorman redevelopment announcement
Posted on September 21, 2010 at 12:03 PM
The announcement today by the Government of the redevelopment of the old St. Brendan's Mental Hospital site at Grangegorman as the new campus for the Dublin Institute of Technology (DIT) and a mental health and primary care facility is most welcome
We hope that this time the announcement means business. The Grangegorman legislation has been in place for five years and various announcements of intent have been made on an annual basis for the last fifteen years but nothing has been delivered so far.
The consolidation of the present six faculties on 39 different locations throughout the City is long overdue. The DIT is the largest single third level institution in the country and the scattered locations for the delivery of its educational services are a logistical nightmare for students, staff and management alike.
Moreover, the provision of a single campus will have substantial saving in rent, maintenance and operational costs. This is a capital project which needs to be moved forward even in these recessionary times.
Over 20,000 students will converge on the North Inner City Dublin 7 campus when the project is complete.
Clearly, there will be need for an integrated public transport system to accommodate these large numbers so that the surrounding streets are not permanently congested.
The BXD Luas line which is planned to link St. Stephen's Green with the Broadstone (part of the Grangegorman site), and continuing on to the Maynooth line at Broombridge is a key factor in the delivery of these students to the campus. The BXD line is only in the planning process at present with a Bórd Pleanála hearing starting this week.
It is essential that the two projects are properly capitalised by the Government and that they proceed in parallel.
Both projects will be labour intensive and will deliver thousands of badly needed jobs to the North Inner City, both in construction and in the operation of the new Campus and Health facility.
