National News In Brief - February 5th
By Sylvester Phelan | Feb 5 2013
Bank of Ireland replaces AIB as Campus Bank at DCUAIB has decided to close its campus branch at Dublin City University after a 20 year tenure. It will cease trading on March 22nd. Bank of Ireland will replace AIB to serve the University’s 9,000 full-time students.Bank of Ireland have secured a lease with DCU to open and operate a branch on the university grounds having also secured a contract for the ATMs present on campus. Apart from the payment made for the lease of the campus bank premises, DCU have declined to state whether any further payments have been made. Bank of Ireland has promised to offer “cutting-edge” services at DCU.AIB’s DCU customers will have their service transferred to nearby Santry. In efforts to cut costs, AIB closed 47 of its branches between October and November. A further 13 will close this year. Trinity Students’ Union to hold abortion preferendumTCDSU is to hold a multiple-choice preferendum on the issue of abortion rights alongside their upcoming sabbatical officer elections next week.The preferendum will give the options of keeping the Students’ Union’s current policy of providing information pregnancy options including abortion, and campaigning for greater education regarding sex and contraception, and increased help for single parents in third-level education. Other options include no abortion under any circumstances, abortion under certain circumstances and unrestricted abortion.The result of this preferendum will be non-binding as the form of plebiscite involved is not recognised by the Union’s Constitution enacted in 2009, however the results will be presented to a meeting of SU Council on February 19th and will guide how Council will form the Students' Union's policy on abortion.The move to form a more comprehensive policy on abortion comes after a Trinity society, Dublin University Gender Equality Society (DUGES), was stopped by the Central Societies Committee (CSC) in late November from advocating a political position in regards abortion, and was forced to pull out of attending a pro-choice rally. DIT launches China venture on Hainan IslandDublin Institute of Technology (DIT) has begun a venture to build business in China through the development of the Hainan International Tourism College (HITC). DIT is currently working with China Aroma Investment Corporation, a Chinese investment group, to develop the college which is part of the central government’s 10-year plan to develop the island as an international tourist destination.In addition to building the school, the investment company will also build a hotel and resort to be operated by a leading chain. This will act as a training facility for up to 5,000 students who, when the facility is fully operational, will be trained in culinary and hospitality programmes. The scheme will have significant attraction for students from both countries says Head of the School of Hospitality Management & Tourism in DIT, Dominic Dillane.Dillane has been a key figure in the development of HITC saying it will “play an important part in attracting students from this region to come to Dublin to study” and vice versa. Hainan is a major tourist destination for Chinese visitors, and it has seen major development as a tourist site in recent years with tourism revenue growing 25% from 2010 to 2011.