The Government has proposed funding of £20 million for University College Dublin to move out of Earlsfort Terrace and relocate its medicine and engineering faculties at its campus in Belfield, The Irish Times has learned.
UCD has been operating from the building for the last 86 years and until 1970 the main part of the university was located there.
It is understood the Government was unhappy with a proposal from a developer to buy the site from UCD and build apartments and a hotel. Consequently it has tabled its own proposal and discussions with UCD have begun.
The Minister for Arts, Heritage, Gaeltacht and the Islands, Ms de Valera, and the Minister for Education and Science, Mr Martin, are understood to want the building to remain in public ownership.
If final agreement can be reached with UCD, the Government will use the vacated building for two purposes - expansion of the National Concert Hall and a new centre for arts organisations and groups involved in arts education.
The Department of Arts, Heritage, Gaeltacht and the Islands is currently drawing up a list of bodies and organisations that might be housed in the new centre.
Earlsfort Terrace was among the sites considered for the location of the new Academy of the Performing Arts, but it lost out to Dublin City University, which hosts the academy's headquarters and central facilities.
The overall cost of moving the facilities at Earlsfort Terrace to Belfield is about £30 million, with most of the money needed for new space. With the State allocating £20 million, the rest will come from UCD's own fund-raising.
Sources have said the £20 million will come from education allocations already included under the National Development Plan. The timescale for the move has yet to be worked out, but UCD is anxious to leave the building because some of the facilities are extremely old and space is cramped.
The NCH is leased from UCD for a nominal fee. However, it is understood the Government was concerned that if a private developer took control of Earlsfort Terrace, the chance of the concert hall expanding further would be ended.
Earlsfort Terrace came about after buildings were constructed there for the 1865 Dublin International Exhibition.