Facebook’s Grand Canal Square office. Image: Laura Hutton/Shutterstock
After months of speculation, Facebook has confirmed its plans to move into a new office space in north Dublin.
Facebook remains one of the biggest tech employers in Dublin, where it now employs around 1,600 people at its office in Grand Canal Square. It is now looking to add at least another 800 in a new office in north Dublin.
It was perhaps one of the worst-kept secrets in Silicon Docks as back in December, the rumour mill began suggesting that Facebook was to add around 1,000 staff with a new office space.
This rumour was fuelled last month when reports of a possible location began trickling out, with speculation that the company was planning to purchase a new premises in the International Financial Services Centre in north Dublin.
Now, according to the Irish Independent, the rumours can be laid to rest. Facebook’s head of Irish operations, Gareth Lambe, confirmed that the company will be moving into a new property in the East Wall area of Dublin.
The reason being, he said, was that while its existing building in Grand Canal Square has space for 2,000 staff, its plans for rapid expansion mean it will soon be well beyond capacity.
Believes move is a ‘statement’
“Over the next number of years, if the business and platform continue to grow, we expect to continue to grow pretty substantially in Ireland,” he said.
“It’s by far our largest footprint of any country in the world outside our Silicon Valley headquarters.”
Lambe also cited benefits for the local area, believing that the company moving to the Dublin region is a “statement”.
“We see that area as having a lot of potential, a lot like the current area [the Grand Canal basin] 10 or 15 years ago. We considered places with lower costs on the outskirts of Dublin.”
He also said that the decision to expand was based squarely on the successes of the business it runs here in Ireland, but denied that US president Donald Trump’s calls for US businesses to come home had any impact on its Irish operations.
Facebook’s Grand Canal Square office. Image: Laura Hutton/Shutterstock
