Pictured above (L-R): James Geoghegan, Lord Mayor of Dublin and John Boumphrey, Vice President, Amazon UK & Ireland.
As Amazon marks 20 years in Ireland, we’re sharing insights on our economic impact in the country since we opened the doors to our first office in Dublin, in 2004. Ireland has been an important part of our story and we’re proud of the significant positive impact we’ve had on local jobs and communities, innovation, and the Irish economy during our time here.
Amazon has invested over €22 billion in Ireland
Since 2004, Amazon has made direct investments in our Ireland operations of more than €22 billion. In 2023 alone, we invested more than €3 billion. This direct investment helped raise the country’s economic activity, causing a ripple effect across the country. For example, as we support Irish small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) to grow, they in turn employ more people, and associated household spending increases.
Creating local jobs
Throughout the last 20 years, we have extended our commitment and investment in Ireland. Since 2004, we have opened six Amazon sites across the country, including a fulfilment centre (FC) in Dublin’s Baldonnell Business Park, a delivery station in Ballycoolin, data centres, and two corporate offices in Cork and Dublin. In total, we employ around 6,500 people in Ireland across Amazon and AWS.
What’s more, in 2025 we are set to open a new dedicated online store in Ireland, Amazon.ie, which will enhance the retail experience for new and existing customers.
As a significant employer in Ireland, we provide a range of roles from entry level positions to highly-skilled jobs, including operations managers, data engineers, film producers, and human resource and finance professionals, through to health and safety specialists and picking, packing, and shipping associates. This, in turn, reflects the diversity of our business in Ireland, which spans Amazon retail, AWS, Prime, Amazon Studios, and Kuiper, our satellite broadband network.
We invest in our employees too, giving them opportunities to learn new skills and develop their careers. In 2014, we launched our popular adult learning initiative, Career Choice, a programme which pre-pays 95% of tuition for courses in high-demand fields, up to €12,000 over four years. Since then, over 400 Irish employees, including many from our FC in Baldonnell Business Park, have trained in a variety of skills, from administration and business services to new languages and technology training.
Supporting Irish SMEs
We continue to support SMEs to reach international scale, with more than 1,000 Irish SMEs selling more than 5.5 million products on Amazon – with home, beauty, grocery, and health and personal care proving to be the most popular categories. In 2023, Irish SMEs selling on Amazon recorded over €170 million in export sales, with over half of those (more than €100 million) in export sales outside the EU. We’re proud to say that these SMEs have gone on to create more than 2,500 Irish jobs to support their businesses on Amazon. As we launch amazon.ie in 2025, this number is set to grow.
Benefitting local communities
When we invest in a community, it means more jobs, more local investment, and more education and training opportunities for the people who live and work in those places. Take AWS’s investments in cloud computing infrastructure, for example. AWS has increased economic output in Ireland by over €11.4 billion since 2012. Much of this economic impact relates to the construction, connection, maintenance, and operation of data centres.
“As we mark Amazon's 20th anniversary in Ireland, we remain deeply committed to supporting our local communities, and empowering Ireland’s thriving digital economy,” said Neil Morris, AWS Country Lead, Ireland. “We’re so proud that our cutting-edge cloud infrastructure and highly-skilled workforce here in Ireland is supporting everyone from the fastest growing start-ups, to small and medium-sized enterprises, public sector organisations, and educational institutions. These individuals and companies are turning to AWS to innovate faster, reduce costs, and compete on a global stage.”
Strengthening education and skills has also been an important focus in Ireland. For the past six years, We have partnered with the Tallaght Campus of Technological University Dublin (TU Dublin) on their Data Centre Technician Programme, which offers participants the opportunity to re-train with annual bursaries and the possibility of a paid work placement with AWS.
What’s more, to create more diversity in the technology field, we have launched a number of education and training programmes for people at all stages of their life. One example is AWS re/Start, a workforce development training programme that prepares individuals for careers in the cloud and connects them to potential employers.
Success and scale bring broad responsibility
Amazon currently has five corporate power purchase agreements (CPPAs) in place in Ireland, totalling 326MW. The windfarms at Esk (Co.Cork), Ardderroo (Co.Galway) and Ballykeel (Co.Antrim) are already operational. The Derrinlough (Co.Offaly) and Meenbog (Co.Donegal) projects are at various stages of development and will follow in due course.
In total, the five projects will add 326MW of renewable capacity to the Irish grid, capable of generating 1,071,127 MWh of renewable energy, reducing carbon emissions by 281,814 tonnes of CO2, and powering the equivalent of 224,132 homes (on an annual basis).
As we continue to reduce the environmental impact of our operations in Ireland, we are supporting others to do the same. One way we are doing this is by providing the local community with excess heat from our data centres. In Dublin, we have worked with South Dublin County Council to deliver the Tallaght District Heating Scheme (TDHS), the first initiative of its kind nationwide.
A dedicated Irish website
Finally, we’re very excited for the launch of our new dedicated website for Ireland, Amazon.ie, in 2025. It’s great news for Irish customers, providing them with an experience they value most – a wide selection of over 100 million products, including even more from Irish businesses, with low prices, and fast and convenient deliveries. It’s great news for Irish SMEs as well, who will be able to reach even more customers at home, as well as abroad.
