Today Minister for Education Ruairi Quinn has approved the construction of a €35m educational campus in Co Monaghan.

The project, which will be managed by the Monaghan Vocational Education Committee, will be  the largest building project funded by the Department of Education this year so far .

When finished the campus will include a 16 classroom primary school, a 400 pupil post-primary school and a 700 student Institute of Further Education.

The site being used for the campus is a former army barracks in Monaghan Town.

A state of the art theatre will also be built as part of the project, which will be grant-aided by the Department of Education and the Department of Arts, Heritage and the Gaeltacht to the tune of €3.3m.

The next stage now in the process is that  the VEC will sign contracts with John Sisk & Sons Ltd, who won a tender process to construct the new campus.

According to a statement from the Department of Education the 20-acre facility 'is in line with the Government view that shared campuses are the preferred model for future development of educational infrastructure in areas of demographic growth.'

It said that the master plan for the site foresees the three educational bodies on the campus sharing facilities such as the sports hall, car parking and playing pitches.

On a related topic two million euro has been allocated by the Minister for Arts towards the Garage Theatre Project.

This was announced  by Minister Jimmy Deenahin at  a meeting this morning with local TD's including Deputies Heather Humpries and Sean Conlan and members of the Monaghan VEC Committee.

The theatre forms part of the VEC education campus, which is the largest state construction development to be undertaken this year.

Two Monaghan town projects got the funding to go ahead with there plans.

Today Minister for Education Ruairi Quinn has approved the construction of a €35m educational campus in Co Monaghan.

The project, which will be managed by the Monaghan Vocational Education Committee, will be  the largest building project funded by the Department of Education this year so far .

When finished the campus will include a 16 classroom primary school, a 400 pupil post-primary school and a 700 student Institute of Further Education.

The site being used for the campus is a former army barracks in Monaghan Town.

A state of the art theatre will also be built as part of the project, which will be grant-aided by the Department of Education and the Department of Arts, Heritage and the Gaeltacht to the tune of €3.3m.

The next stage now in the process is that  the VEC will sign contracts with John Sisk & Sons Ltd, who won a tender process to construct the new campus.

According to a statement from the Department of Education the 20-acre facility 'is in line with the Government view that shared campuses are the preferred model for future development of educational infrastructure in areas of demographic growth.'

It said that the master plan for the site foresees the three educational bodies on the campus sharing facilities such as the sports hall, car parking and playing pitches.

On a related topic two million euro has been allocated by the Minister for Arts towards the Garage Theatre Project.

This was announced  by Minister Jimmy Deenahin at  a meeting this morning with local TD's including Deputies Heather Humpries and Sean Conlan and members of the Monaghan VEC Committee.

The theatre forms part of the VEC education campus, which is the largest state construction development to be undertaken this year.