230 jobs boost at Limerick IT campus

Limerick yesterday got a 230 educational and building jobs boost in what a leading academic described as “a game-changing moment” for Limerick IT.

The board of the Higher Education Authority approved LIT’s purchase of a new site at Coonagh Cross with the support of €3.5m in capital funding from the Department of Education and Skills.

This decision allows LIT to start the development of a new campus at Coonagh Cross, leading to the creation of 134 jobs during the construction phase, and a further 100 full-time jobs when fully operational. The first intake of students is scheduled for next year.

It is intended that the development will take place over three years. The campus will include the National Precision Engineering Hub which will provide services to the manufacturing sector such as employee training, testing facilities and applied research, in close collaboration with the Precision Turn Manufacturing Association.

The availability of new space at Coonagh will enable LIT to expand a range of other programmes and provide much-needed extra sports facilities on the north-side of the city.

Education minister Jan O’Sullivan said: “This is very positive news for LIT and for the whole Limerick region. The innovation of our educational institutes has been critical in attracting jobs and investment to Limerick in recent years and this investment will ensure that this model of success goes from strength-to-strength. It’s good news for students, good news for LIT and good news for Limerick.”

President of LIT, Maria Hinfelaar, said: “This is a game-changing moment for LIT and for higher education in the mid-west. This is a critical capital investment made by the state which ensures that LIT will be a key catalyst helping Limerick and the wider mid-west region to continue attracting further high value technology jobs.

“LIT will now be able to almost double its footprint, and to expand course provision in science, technology and engineering to meet the region’s expanding skills needs, given the scale of recent job announcements. We are anticipating that the first students will be studying on the Coonagh Campus next year, and when the first phase of development is completed in 2018 we will have created capacity for an additional 550 students.”