Planning permission granted for Facebook data centre in Meath

Meath County Council has granted Facebook planning permission for a new €200 million data centre in Clonee.

It is the social network giant's second site in Europe. The company already has a workforce of more than 900 in Ireland.

The first phase will see the construction of two buildings containing eight data halls with a gross floor area of almost 51,000 square metres.

The chair of Meath County Council Brian Fitzgerald told LMFM that it's great news for the county:

"I suppose it's the best good news story that we've had in this county in my time on the county council - and that's over 30 years," he said.

"It gives us a great opportunity now … to help promote the county even further and encourage foreign direct investment into the county."