A Cork-based research centre is to benefit from a €50m cash injection.

The Government has announced the funding for the Alimentary Pharmabiotic Centre.

It's a designated national centre for food and medicine research and it spans across UCC, CIT and Teagasc.

Speaking to Cork's RedFM APC Director, Professor Fergus Shanahan, said the funding will support 109 jobs, but this is just the start.

Prof. Shanahan said: "We're talking about jobs at the high end of science, at the high end of pharmaceutical and food production.

"It's not just the 109 jobs really, these are the most immediate jobs that will be made, but it is also a question of anchoring existing jobs, training people who move up the value chains who will be able to populate and employed by companies such as the Kerry Group which are our big multinational here in Ireland."