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Ireland and the EU are backing a massive €230 million expansion at DCU

The money is being used for a massive development of the university’s campus.

BOTH THE IRISH state’s investment fund and the European Union’s bank are supporting a massive €230 million capital development plan at Dublin City University.

The university announced this morning that it has secured long-term loan and bridging finance for a huge programme of infrastructural improvements over the next five years.

DCU said the funds will be used for:

  • Research and innovation
  • The construction of a new student centre and new sports facilities
  • On-campus accommodation and “21st century digital teaching spaces”

The Ireland Strategic Investment Fund, which is managed by the National Treasury Management Agency, has committed €54 million to the project. That money will be used to specifically target student-accommodation projects.

Funding

In addition to that, the fund has signalled an appetite “in principle” to fund up to €66 million extra, subject to the projects meeting the dual requirements of a commercial return and economic impact.

The European Investment Bank has also made €76 million available to DCU under a 23-year loan.

The university said that the remainder is being provided by “philanthropic donations, government grants, student contributions and funding from the university itself”.

The investment will allow for the upgrade of facilities on the All Hallows Campus and the construction of student accommodation following the signing of final contracts for the purchase of the campus by DCU earlier this month.

21/1/2013 Jobs Announcements DCU Innovation Campus DCU President Brian MacCraith Laura Hutton / Photocall Ireland Laura Hutton / Photocall Ireland / Photocall Ireland

It will also facilitate construction on St Patrick’s College campus which will provide additional capacity “to support the incorporation of St Patrick’s College, Mater Dei Institute of Education and the Church of Ireland College of Education into DCU”.

On the Glasnevin campus, the finance will facilitate a buy-back of existing campus residences and construction of a further 560 on-campus student accommodation places.

This will bring the total capacity to over 2,200 student bed units across the university’s campuses.

Transformation

Construction of a new student centre will start this summer to create a “purpose-built space for students’ social, cultural, global engagement and entrepreneurial activities”.

European Investment Bank vice president Jonathan Taylor said its €76 million loan “demonstrates the European Investment Bank’s commitment to support long-term investment that improves economic opportunities and social infrastructure across Ireland”.

“The European Investment Bank looks forward to backing similar impressive schemes elsewhere in Ireland in the months and years ahead,” he said.

DCU President Brian MacCraith said that the project “heralds the commencement of a massive transformation project for Dublin City University which will see us extend our geographical footprint in North Dublin to become a four campus institution with first-class facilities for students and researchers alike”.

He said the project will “enhance the DCU student experience of a growing student body which will number 16,000 on completion of incorporation of St Patrick’s College, Drumcondra, Mater Dei Institute of Education and the Church of Ireland College of Education in September this year.”

DCU currently has 11,000 students enrolled there.

Written by Paul O’Donoghue and posted on Fora, a new business publication for Irish startups and SMEs.

Read: A new €50m state-backed fund will put money into tractors

Read: It’s a woman’s world – the man trying to crack the Irish beauty industry

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    Mute Rob Munnelly
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    Sep 17th 2015, 9:08 PM

    This might be the poorest informed article I’ve read on an Apple release in a while.

    1) Doubling the ram is something just “does” in its phones, almost year on year.

    2) 2GB of ram wasn’t a surprise, it was widely speculated and assumed that would be the case.

    3) Extra ram, on iOS, doesn’t really affect how apps run in the background; it allows larger apps to run more processes in the foreground. That means better graphics in a game because it can load more triangles / drawing processes etc.

    4) Cramming 4gb of ram into something with a mobile chip doesn’t make it as powerful as a laptop, it just has as much ram as one. A lot of these things still run on really crappy processors, and Android is a one-for-all operating system – it’s not built to get the most out of any 1 combination of processor make / speed / model, combined with a ram / speed / make / model. So you can’t really compare them based on the headline number of a single part of it.

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    Mute Byyys
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    Sep 17th 2015, 7:16 PM

    Apple also launched it’s first Android APP called ‘Move to iOS’ yesterday on Google Play as part of the iOS 9 launch…. It got blasted with over 8 thousand 1 star reviews (https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.apple.movetoios) Most of the reviews are just rants against Apple.

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    Mute John Lawless
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    Sep 17th 2015, 7:24 PM

    I thought Apple Music was the first Apple app released on Android?

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    Mute Byyys
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    Sep 17th 2015, 9:15 PM

    John… Aside from Beats Music for Android, which Apple acquired, this is the company’s first Android APP. Apple didn’t announce ‘Move to iOS’ at WWDC 2015. Instead, the APP was quietly listed on Apple’s What’s new in iOS page the same day.

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    Mute john
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    Sep 17th 2015, 8:22 PM

    My vodafone smart ultra 6 has 2gb Ram and lots of other stuff the iphone 6s has and it only cost me €170!! The only thing it doesnt have is the apple logo on the back :( I’ll just have to live with not being cool!

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    Mute Brendan
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    Sep 17th 2015, 8:54 PM

    Funny enough when I see someone flashing the apple logo on their phone or laptop/tablet I just think knob!!!

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    Mute Paul Lanigan
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    Sep 17th 2015, 11:29 PM

    boulder on your shoulder Brendan

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    Mute Carlin Ite
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    Sep 18th 2015, 7:52 AM

    I have a MacBook Pro. I will never use a windows laptop again.

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    Mute Jonny Lennon
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    Sep 17th 2015, 8:04 PM

    The Journal.. Sponsored by Apple!!!

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    Mute Anon Ymous
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    Sep 18th 2015, 12:46 AM

    I updated my iPhone 5 to iOS9 today. Purely by chance I discovered that, with this new update, it automatically starts your 3 month free trial with Apple Music and – in the small print – after the 3 month trial is up, Apple will start charging your account. I wouldn’t have known this only a friend and I were chatting about Apple Music this evening and I had a quick look at it. I have never signed up for the free trial so am really Annoyed by it.

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    Mute Sean 
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    Sep 18th 2015, 3:29 PM

    Well it hasn’t opted me in on any of my devices not any of my friends I have checked with so you must just be unlucky

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    Mute Jim Rodgers
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    Sep 19th 2015, 12:57 PM

    Surely you seen this nugget of information in the 400 pages of terms and conditions that you read before agreeing to iOS9 ;-)

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    Mute Seamus McSpud
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    Sep 17th 2015, 8:30 PM

    During testing of iOS9 it was discovered that there is an issue for users who use custom Access Point Names (APN) to access their corporate networks.
    This could affect some customers using Vodafone Office Access, Vodafone Data Control or customers who have custom-built APNs.
    The impact it may have is that if a user upgrades to iOS9 they may lose complete data connectivity.

    As a precaution we strongly recommend that any users who use custom APNs, Vodafone Office Access or Vodafone Data Control do not upgrade to iOS9, until further notice. We understand that Apple are working on a fix.

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