Planning application expected for €4m Clonmel campus

PLANNING permission is expected to be sought later this year for a new €4 million third-level campus in Clonmel as part of the merger of the Tipperary Institute with the Limerick Institute of Technology.

The research and development facility will be built on a greenfield site on the edge of Clonmel, while the existing third-level buildings elsewhere in the town and at the main Tipperary Institute (TI) campus in Thurles will remain in place.

South Tipperary County Council, who own the site which is part of the Ballingarrane Science and Technology Park, are underwriting the cost of the new educational establishment.

Corporate affairs director with the council, John O’Mahoney, confirmed yesterday that a planning application is expected to be lodged in the coming months for the Ballingarrane campus.

“From day one, we would have seen third-level education as an integral part of the [science and technology] park. Third-level is linked with foreign investment and with local investment,” he said.

The future of the Tipperary Institute, which has 500 students at its Thurles and Clonmel bases, was in doubt after the Colm McCarthy-led committee on public service expenditure recommended its closure.

However, a merger with the LIT soon emerged as an option which was looked on favourably across the region and the new Clonmel development is expected to be rubber-stamped by college authorities and south Tipperary county councillors in the near future.

According to Mr O’Mahoney, the exact site for the research and development base has not been finalised, but it’s expected to be in or around a 11-acre field close to a new service road at Clonmel’s Cahir Road roundabout.

“The next step is to agree a final memorandum of understanding, including the nuts and bolts of the development.”

Original plans to locate the third-level campus at Ballingarrane House, outside Clonmel on its road to Cahir, were shelved after college management felt it was too removed from the town.

The retention of the current TI building on the Inner Relief Road has been welcomed. Years ago there were plans for Clonmel’s Gaelscoil, which has been looking for a permanent home for over a decade, to relocate to the existing TI base when the college’s future was made certain. The Gaelscoil is now expected to remain at its Irishtown base following Government approval last year.