Europe: Irish government data center initiative costs double

Irish government's new data center has reached an all-time high price tag of €80 million ($87.4m). While initial estimates placed the cost of building the data center at €30 million and the completion date at 2020, the project has been plagued by delays and cost overruns.

The completion date was pushed back to 2025 last year due to "planning and energy." The present schedule calls for completion of construction in the first quarter of 2024 and completion of the fit-out by the end of the second quarter of 2025. The government estimated the cost would be €57m in 2021, now at €80m ($87.4m). The European Union's Resilience and Recovery Fund will provide €40 million toward that total.

Designer Group, based in Dublin, Ireland, initiated the construction of the data center in March 2023 at its site in Cellbridge, County Kildare. The facility will encompass 89,340 square feet. When done, the data center will house systems utilized by the Department of Social Protection, the Revenue Commissioners, and An Garda Sochána. The State's Department of Agriculture, Food, and the Marine will be in charge of running and managing the facility.

Minister of Public Expenditure Paschal Donohue has confirmed the increased cost in a public notice. The notice stated, "It is also an important element of the Government's strategic framework for 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 of duplication, and cost control."q