Facebook’s new data centre will create hundreds of temporary construction jobs and dozens of long term jobs in the new built centre.
Facebook is reported to be planning a new €200 million data centre in Ireland, which will mainly be powered by renewable energy.
The planned 50,000 sq² centre will be based near the Dublin-Meath border and will be the social network’s second data centre in Europe, bringing the company’s Irish staff numbers up to over 1,000.
The company said the move shows its commitment to investing in Ireland. The new project is being supported by the Irish government through its foreign direct investment arm.
Facebook currently has four data centres around the world.
The decision by Facebook to submit an application in Ireland to build a new data centre coincides with expected changes to European Union data protection law, which will likely effect technology companies operating in Europe.
Justice ministers from EU states, who are meeting in Luxembourg this week, are expected to sign off on how they should negotiate with the European Parliament on data protection reform. A final deal could be worked out between the parliament and the governments of the member states by the end of the year.
