Taoiseach Leo Varadkar has opened the new €80m building for the Business School at Trinity College Dublin.
The flagship development will house the scaled up Trinity Business School, which bills itself as a global leader in innovative business education programmes.
The six-storey building which fronts onto Pearse Street includes an Innovation and Entrepreneurial hub, a 600 seat auditorium, smart classrooms with the latest digital technology and an executive education centre.
The building costs €80m which along with associated university costs of €10m led to a total project cost of €90m.
The development has been financed with an European Investment Bank loan to Trinity College of €70m and funding of €20m supported by philanthropic donations by business leaders and companies nationally and internationally. The EIB loan has a 30-year term.
Prof. Andrew Burke, Dean of the Trinity Business School, commented: “The opening of this state-of- the-art building marks the achievement of a mission to grow Trinity Business School from a niche player into a top international business school. This involved the implementation of a high growth strategy that propelled the School to become the fastest growing established business school in Europe over the last three years.
“This transformation also secured the recognition by EQUIS ─ the world’s leading business school accreditation body. We now have a world class building for a world class business school located at the heart of our European capital city and hub for global business – that will be of major benefit for Ireland.”
College Provost Dr Patrick Prendergast added: “Trinity Business School is an example of how philanthropy can make a real difference to teaching and research and is one of the priorities of Trinity’s philanthropic campaign, ‘Inspiring Generations’, which launched publicly earlier this month.
"The School is already a global leader in business education. The opening of this inspiring new home for Trinity Business School in the heart of our Dublin campus will now cement the School’s position, create a first class learning environment and allow the University to expand the number of courses on offer.”
Photo: Leo Varadkar (centre) with Dr Patrick Prendergast (left) andProf. Andrew Burke. (pix: Iain White - Fennell Photography)