Ireland wants another fab. Can it build the right site?

Intel’s latest €5 billion investment at Leixlip reinforces Ireland’s position as one of Europe’s most established semiconductor locations. But its ambitions now extend beyond further expansion at Intel’s existing campus.

In an interview with Ultrafacility, Seamus Carroll, Vice President of Semiconductors at IDA Ireland, outlined how the country is trying to attract the next wave of investment under its Silicon Island strategy.

The strategy aims to secure a new leading-edge fab, two mature-node foundries and an advanced packaging facility by 2040. Winning those projects will depend on more than land: investors will also weigh talent, supply-chain depth, power and water capacity, planning, transport and speed to build.

Ireland starts with significant advantages. Intel has manufactured at Leixlip since 1989, Analog Devices has operated in the country since the 1970s, and decades of investment have built up engineering, construction and supplier capability. The challenge is whether that combination can be replicated at another location.

What makes a fab-ready site?

For a semiconductor investor, land availability is only the starting point. A new manufacturer would need certainty over power, water, wastewater, planning and transport before committing billions of euros.

“It is a global concern, every country realises that the amount of power and water consumed in the tech industry today is very high,” Carroll said.

Ireland is investing €18.9 billion in the grid through 2030, including transmission reinforcement and industrial connections. Carroll said the programme is intended to improve resilience across distribution and transmission and argued that the quality of power supply in Ireland remains strong.

But EirGrid says capacity for very large point loads is becoming harder to provide at individual locations, with parts of the Greater Dublin network requiring further 400 kV reinforcement. It has also warned of increasingly complex connection and outage schedules as multiple grid projects are delivered simultaneously. While some stability issues are specific to data centres, the broader capacity and connection constraints would also matter for another large semiconductor fab.

In early 2026, the government published its Large Energy User Action Plan (LEAP), which specifically identifies semiconductor manufacturing. It proposes a more coordinated approach to large industrial loads, including locating energy-intensive developments around available and planned infrastructure and exploring co-location with renewable generation.

LEAP also acknowledges that grid constraints will limit opportunities for new large energy users before 2030, making site selection increasingly important.

Ireland is therefore moving towards a more plan-led model. Through the €100 million Next Generation Sites programme, IDA aims to bring prospective locations to a “minimum level of infrastructure” before an investor commits, Carroll said. The three planned sites will be 500–1,000 acres, with the first two targeted during the 2026–30 capital programme.

Water presents a parallel challenge

Uisce Éireann says supply across the Eastern Region is already at or near full capacity, while around 85% of Greater Dublin’s supply comes from the River Liffey. Business groups have also warned that water constraints are affecting development and competitiveness.

Ireland has allocated €12.2 billion to water and wastewater investment, including the Water Supply Project for the Eastern and Midlands Region, which would bring a new supply from the River Shannon through Kildare into the Greater Dublin network. The project is intended to address supply deficits and improve resilience, but completion is not expected until the mid-2030s, while Chambers Ireland has warned that capacity limitations are already hindering development in high-growth areas.

For a new fab, the issue is again one of timing and location. Investors would need certainty over water supply, wastewater treatment and network capacity, while much of the infrastructure intended to create additional headroom is still being delivered.

Talent is another part of site readiness

Utilities are only one part of the site-selection equation. Carroll said “developing skills is the important thing in meeting the 2040 goals”, adding that if Ireland is to double the semiconductor industry, “you need to double the labour force to allow that to happen”.

Ireland is trying to address that across the full skills pipeline, from encouraging interest in electronics at school level to increasing relevant university graduates. A new master’s programme in integrated circuit design is intended to deepen specialist capability, while upskilling programmes are targeting around 600 existing workers a year.

An Expert Group on Future Skills Needs is also surveying semiconductor companies on the roles they expect to require and the scale of their planned expansion. Carroll said Ireland already produces a strong pool of electronics graduates, but many are attracted to other sectors, making it important for semiconductor employers to capture “a better market share of that talent pool”.

From ambition to delivery

Ireland has begun to address the challenge through strategic site development, grid reinforcement, major water projects and skills initiatives. The harder task is bringing those elements together at a single location, with sufficient utilities, predictable planning and delivery timelines, and access to the workforce needed to build and operate a fab.

The question is therefore not whether Ireland has the individual ingredients for further semiconductor investment, but whether it can assemble them in the right place and within an investor’s timetable.