About 10% of construction jobs at the 2020 peak, 3.5% in 2024
KPMG's report for the Department of Enterprise puts data-centre construction jobs at 14,200 direct in 2020, when about 136,400 people worked in construction (CSO). That is big enough to matter. It fell to about 6,000 in 2024, and KPMG projects about 8,000 (4.3%) for 2025 before a drop, because almost no new grid contracts are being signed.
Data-centre building's share of Irish construction jobs
At the 2020 peak, data-centre building directly employed about 14,200 people, roughly 10.4% of everyone working in construction. By 2024 it was about 6,000, or 3.5%.
Each bar divides KPMG's estimate of direct data-centre construction jobs (54% of the jobs it attributes to data-centre capital spending; the rest are suppliers and spending by workers) by the CSO's count of people working in construction, averaged over the year. Direct jobs include engineers and project managers as well as trades, so the share of site trades is lower. KPMG's figures are modelled from spending, not counted on sites; the years after 2024 are its projection.
EstimateDirect jobs = 54% of KPMG's capex jobs, the split KPMG reports for 2020 and 2024.
Sources: KPMG for DETE, The Value of Data Centres to Ireland, p. 59–60, Jun 2026 · CSO Labour Force Survey QLF03, 20 Aug 2026
The claim: data centres pull builders off housing
"Data centres are pulling skilled construction workers away from retrofitting our existing housing stock to meet our climate change targets and from building new homes." Cian O'Callaghan TD (Social Democrats), Dáil, Data Centre Moratorium motion, 29 September 2021
The argument is simple: Ireland has a fixed pool of builders, data-centre clients pay well and build fast, so every crew on a data hall is a crew not on a housing estate. It can be tested four ways: does housing fall when data-centre building rises, does construction pay run away, are the trades the same, and is it the same place?
Housing and data-centre building moved in opposite directions in 3 of 10 years
When data-centre building rose, did housing fall?
Only in 3 of 10 years from 2015 to 2024 did the two move in opposite directions. In 2021 and 2023 data-centre jobs fell sharply and housing output fell too.
The top row is KPMG's estimate of direct data-centre construction jobs; the bottom row is the CSO's volume index of residential building output. If data centres were drawing builders off housing sites nationally, housing output would tend to dip when the top row rises. The one clear case is 2020, when Covid shut most building sites for weeks that spring, so it is a poor test. In most years both rise and fall together, which points to a shared cycle (credit, costs, demand) rather than a tug of war. Completions, which lag building, give a more mixed picture (see text). The 2025 data-centre bar is KPMG's projection.
Sources: KPMG for DETE, The Value of Data Centres to Ireland, p. 59–60, Jun 2026 · CSO Labour Force Survey QLF03, 20 Aug 2026 · CSO Production in Building and Construction BEA04/BEA05, 26 Aug 2026
The clearest clash is 2020: data-centre jobs rose by about 10,000 while residential output fell 36 points. But Covid shut most building sites that spring, and in 2021 and 2023, when data-centre jobs fell sharply, housing output fell too. If data centres were holding housing back, their retreat should have freed builders and lifted it.
Completions, the other housing measure, give a more mixed picture. They moved against data-centre jobs in 4 of 10 years (2016, 2020, 2023, 2024). Two of those are recent and fit the claim: in 2023 data-centre jobs fell by about 8,500 and completions rose 2,854; in 2024 data-centre jobs rose 3,500 and completions fell 2,339. Homes finished in a year were mostly started a year or two before, so this is suggestive, not proof.
The two housing measures also disagree over the longer run: from 2019 to 2025 completions rose from 21,012 to 36,215, while the CSO's survey of builders shows the inflation-adjusted value of residential work down 34%. Construction employment rose 25% to 184,300 (2025). In 2025 non-residential output rose 13% and civil engineering 12%, while housing output fell 2% (CSO volume indices).
"the decline in non-residential construction presents an opportunity to re-orientate resources towards residential activities" ESRI, Quarterly Economic Commentary, Summer 2026, 2026
Construction pay rose 44% since 2015, about the same as all jobs
If big clients were outbidding housebuilders for scarce workers, construction pay should pull ahead. It hasn't, by much: average hourly earnings in construction rose 43.9% from 2015 to 2025, against 41.8% across the economy, and construction still pays 91% of the all-jobs average (CSO EHQ03).
| Year | Construction, €/hour | All sectors, €/hour |
|---|---|---|
| 2015 | 19.53 | 21.89 |
| 2016 | 19.85 | 22.06 |
| 2017 | 20.13 | 22.43 |
| 2018 | 20.93 | 23.07 |
| 2019 | 21.68 | 23.88 |
| 2020 | 22.09 | 25.02 |
| 2021 | 23.36 | 26.13 |
| 2022 | 24.36 | 27.09 |
| 2023 | 25.03 | 28.26 |
| 2024 | 27.29 | 29.78 |
| 2025 | 28.11 | 31.03 |
Averages hide trades: a squeeze on electricians or pipefitters would not show up here.
Housing is short of the trades data centres use least
Data-centre building is heavy on mechanical and electrical work (KPMG lists civil works, fit-out, M&E engineering, commissioning and professional services). Housing's shortages are elsewhere:
"key professions in the construction of houses such as bricklayers experienced declines" Department of Finance, Economic Insights Vol. 3 2025, November 2025
"The number of electrical apprenticeship registrations in 2024 (3,100) exceeds that of estimated required demand (1,500 per annum), while for most other occupations, demand looks set to significantly outstrip supply" Department of Finance, Economic Insights Vol. 3 2025, November 2025
"employment in skilled trades grew by 15½ per cent from 2019 to 2025, a slower growth rate than the sectoral increase (24½ per cent)" Department of Finance, Economic Insights Vol. 3 2025, November 2025
Electricians, the trade data centres need most, are the one where apprenticeship supply is running ahead of forecast need. Plumbers and heating fitters are a real overlap: data centres need pipefitters for cooling, and housing and retrofit need them too.
97% of data-centre floor space started since 2021 was in Dublin and Meath
Building-control commencement notices, which every new building must file, show where data-centre work starts. Since 2021 it has been almost all in the Dublin region, where housing need is highest, so any squeeze on workers would be felt there first.
| Council | Data-centre floor space started since 2021 |
|---|---|
| Fingal | 218,086 m² |
| South Dublin | 178,664 m² |
| Dublin City | 47,693 m² |
| Meath | 29,751 m² |
| Cork | 7,750 m² |
| Kildare | 7,610 m² |
| Year | Data-centre floor space started | All new non-residential | Share |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2018 | 46,788 m² | 1,742,426 m² | 2.7% |
| 2019 | 127,898 m² | 2,419,598 m² | 5.3% |
| 2020 | 76,145 m² | 1,563,934 m² | 4.9% |
| 2021 | 141,518 m² | 1,896,161 m² | 7.5% |
| 2022 | 41,765 m² | 1,569,522 m² | 2.7% |
| 2023 | 128,230 m² | 1,581,591 m² | 8.1% |
| 2024 | 62,592 m² | 1,333,260 m² | 4.7% |
| 2025 | 53,850 m² | 1,354,859 m² | 4% |
Floor area understates data centres' share of work: a square metre of data hall costs far more to build than a square metre of warehouse. Floor area is recorded from 2018.
"a marked fall off in starts of new data centres is seen from mid-2023 onwards" Department of Finance, Economic Insights Vol. 3 2025, November 2025
What the evidence supports
Our reading. The claim had most force in 2019–21, when data-centre projects took roughly one construction job in ten, nearly all in the Dublin region. Some competition is real, for engineers, electricians and pipefitters, and for contractors' attention. But the national numbers don't consistently show housing losing out when data-centre building rose, pay hasn't run away, and the trades housing is shortest of are not data-centre trades. Since 2022 data centres' share of construction jobs has been between 2.5% and 5.2%, too small on its own to explain housing's problems, though the 2023–24 completions pattern means it can't be ruled out as one factor among many. If new grid rules unlock a second wave, the 2020 squeeze is the one to watch.
Caveats
- KPMG's data-centre construction jobs are modelled from capital spending with input-output multipliers, not counted on sites; 'direct' (54%) includes engineers and project managers as well as trades.
- CSO construction employment (Labour Force Survey, NACE F) is a survey estimate and swings quarter to quarter; it counts where people work, so Irish firms' workers on data centres abroad are not separated out.
- BCMS floor areas are typed in by applicants and are noisy; data centres are found by keyword, so some (e.g. those described only by a building code) are missed.
- Data-centre building peaked in 2020, the year Covid shut sites; housing output also moved with interest rates and policy deadlines. Co-movement is not cause.
- Floor area understates data centres' labour: they cost far more per square metre than warehouses or offices, mostly in mechanical and electrical work.