A new €1billion plan to develop a new tech innovation hub and university campus in the heart of Dublin’s docklands has been given the green light.

The 'Grand Canal Innovation District’ is a national initiative led by Trinity College that will combine start-ups, world-class research facilities, multi-national companies and other collaborating universities.

Trinity owns the 2.2 hectare site adjacent to Grand Canal Quay, and it wants to build the campus close to tech firms already based in the area including Google, LinkedIn and Facebook.

The Government is to contribute around €150m to part fund the new campus, which it's hoped will link up with start-ups, tech giants and universities.

Trinity College Provost Patrick Prendergast said the funding pledge is crucial to unlocking support from the private sector for the project.

The new hub will become the famous old college's second campus, focused on technology and innovation on land adjacent to Grand Canal Quay and Macken Street.

Business group Ibec welcomed the approval of the plan and said the new tech hub was crucial to future investment and growth.

CEO Danny McCoy said: "The economic and population growth currently underway on the island of Ireland makes planning for the future now even more important.

"The scale of our growth is an enabling factor that will allow the island to compete for international business at a new level.

"The economies that invest properly in their future will drive economic prosperity and job creation.

"Our ability, as a small open economy, to continue to attract investment and grow its own successful global businesses is more than ever linked to the amount of research that originates here."

When the ambitious plans were first announced in July 2018, Taoiseach Leo Varadkar said the hub would help to future-proof the economy.

He said: "I am really excited about this plan to further develop the Silicon Docks as an Innovation District involving a collaboration of business, Government and the university sector.

“We have to ask ourselves; how can we market Ireland and Dublin as the ideal location for the next wave of investment? As the world changes around us, we must continuously adapt and future-proof our economy.

"The development of the Grand Canal Innovation District is an exciting opportunity to build a world-class innovation district where companies, researchers and entrepreneurs link up, to identify new products or services and discuss how they might be brought to market.”