Apple’s campus in Cork

APPLE will invest £628million (€850m) in building a new data centre in Co Galway.

The development will create 300 jobs during the process from construction to operation, with around 100 jobs expected to be available upon completion.

The new centre will be built on a Greenfield site in Derrydonnell, near Athenry, and along with a similar facility in Denmark, forms part of Apple’s global investment announcement.

The two data centres, which will operate Apple’s online music and app store services, as well as host information uploaded by users to iCloud, will be up and running by 2017.

Ireland, which has a corporation tax rate of 12.5 per cent, is currently home to a number of other technology giants, including Facebook, Google, and Twitter, who have set up major headquarters in cities such as Dublin and Cork.

Apple already employs 4,100 people in Ireland, the majority at its European Headquarters in Cork.

The company said its new facilities in Galway and Denmark will run entirely on clean, renewable energy sources.

Taoiseach Enda Kenny said: “It is a very significant investment in the West of Ireland and is fantastic news for Athenry with significant knock-on benefits for the region.

“As the Government works to secure recovery and see it spread to every part of the country, today’s announcement is another extremely positive step in the right direction.”

In a statement, Apple CEO Tim Cook said: “This significant new investment represents Apple’s biggest project in Europe to date.

“We’re thrilled to be expanding our operations, creating hundreds of local jobs and introducing some of our most advanced green building designs yet.”

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