The cost of Ireland’s new government data center has continued to climb, reaching €80 million ($87.4m).
When it was proposed in 2018, the data center was predicted to cost €30 million, and be completed by 2020, but the project has been bugged by delays and cost increases.
Last year the completion date was moved to 2025, due to “planning and energy.” Under the current timelines, construction will finish in Q1 2024, while fit-out will be done by the end of Q2 2025.
In 2021, the government said costs had gone up to €57m, and this has now increased again to €80 million ($87.4m). Of that, the EU will fund €40m through its Resilience and Recovery fund.
Construction for the data center, located in Cellbridge, County Kildare, began in March 2023 led by Dublin-based Designer Group. The facility will span 8,300 sqm (89,340 sq ft). Once completed, the data center will host infrastructure used by State agencies Revenue Commissioners, An Garda Síochána, and the Department of Social Protection. It will be operated and managed by the Department of Agriculture, Food, and the Marine on behalf of the State.
The new cost has been confirmed by the Minister of the Department of Public Expenditure, Paschal Donohue, in an official notice.
The notice said: “It is also an important element of the Government’s strategic framework in fostering technology innovation and excellence across public services in Ireland, and for providing access for State bodies to ICT infrastructure to drive efficiency, standardization, consolidation, reduction in duplication and cost control.”
There are currently more than 100 disparate government server rooms and small data centers.
Ireland has had a defacto moratorium on data center projects around Dublin since January 2022, after EirGrid said it would no longer be granting new grid connections for data centers in the capital.
In June 2023, the government reiterated its stance in support of the industry and, despite their high energy use, would not be limiting the number of data centers in the country.
