Just In Time For The Election: Zuckerberg Announces A Massive $200m Data Centre For Ireland

This is pretty great news, even if the timing seems somewhat convenient.

Mark Zuckerberg has just announced that Facebook is to build a MASSIVE data centre in Clonee, Co Meath, resulting in 2,000 construction jobs and 150 long-term jobs once the thing is up and running from 2018.

In a Facebook post, the founder and CEO said:

We’re glad to be investing in Ireland, to become a part of the Clonee community, and to continue building the massive infrastructure that connects our global community.

Given that Facebook benefit from some pretty nifty corporate tax arrangements in order to maintain their presence here – in 2014, they paid €3.4m tax on €4.8 billion in sales – the timing of this announcement just ahead of a general election does seem rather serendipitous. 

Back-scratching aside, though, this is great news for Meath and great news for Ireland.

So we’ll stop being cynical and let them have their moment.