KILDARE COUNTY COUNCIL has given the green light to an expanded Kildare Innovation Campus (KIC) which could contribute €5 billion to the economy when fully operational. 

Currently, firms, including HP Enterprise and DB Schenker, based at Kildare Innovation Campus near the M4 at Parsonstown, Leixlip employ 1,000 and the new planned extension granted planning permission by Kildare County Council will deliver a capacity for a further 3,000 jobs. 

The Council has granted a 10-year planning permission without seeking further information on the planning application and has attached 53 conditions to the grant of permission.

Underlining the scale of the proposal, the Council has ordered the applicants to pay €9.47 million towards public infrastructure costs in one of the conditions attached. 

The planning authority has granted planning permission after concluding that the proposal would not seriously injure the amenities of the area or of property in the vicinity. 

An economic assessment prepared by Grant Thornton for applicants, Davy Real Estate entity Davy Platform ICAV on behalf of the Liffey Sub Fund has estimated that the total economic output from the expanded Kildare Innovation Campus will be €5 billion. 

The planning application for the former HP (Hewlett Packard) campus includes the construction of two new ‘deep tech’ buildings, four new data centre buildings and an Energy Centre to provide dispatchable power to the national electrical grid as part of a three phased expansion of the campus from 2024 to 2035.

The report states that the investment in the KIC on a 178 acre site will be €2.5 billion and KIC, when complete, will result in wages of €267 million per annum.

The Grant Thornton assessment has stated that KIC aims to become the leading technological and innovation campus in Europe in areas such as AI & Robotics, Quantum Computing and semi-conductors, AgTech, Renewables, Digital Health and Space Technologies. 

The proposal includes an additional 152,138sqm of new buildings, leaving a total of 195,525sqm between existing and proposed development. 

A planning report by consultants, Tom Phillips & Associates state that upon purchase of the campus in 2021, the new landowners began to develop a vision for the future development of the site to maximize its economic potential.

The consultants stated that the deep tech spaces “will include a range of innovative engineering technologies including the likes of artificial intelligence (AI) and quantum computing, both of which would have substantial benefits from co-location with data centre storage”. 

The report states that other examples of deep tech “include block-chain, computer imaging, and Virtual Reality”. 

The report states that the proposed development “will aim to provide for a connected innovation hub for global leaders in science and technology and to connect those global leaders with third level institutions, in particular Maynooth University”. 

CEO of Kildare Chamber of Commerce Allan Shine lodged a submission with the council outlining the chamber’s support for the proposal. 

Shine said that the expanded KIC “positions Kildare as the leading county in Ireland for inward investment”. 

Shine said that subject to planning, the KIC will become the leading innovation campus in Europe in areas such as AI and Robotics.