Facebook has submitted plans to build a new data centre in Co. Meath, this will be the company's fifth such facility and it is due to be powered solely through renewable energy.

There will be 40 new full time jobs, while hundreds of other jobs will be created during the construction phase.

The social media giant recently moved into a bigger office space in Dublin's docklands where it employs over 900 people, this centre will be located near Clonee.

"Ireland has been a home for Facebook since 2007 and today's planning application demonstrates our continued interest to invest in Ireland," said Rachel Peterson, data centre director in Facebook.

She continues: "We hope to build an innovative, environmentally friendly data centre that will help us continue to connect people in Ireland and around the world while supporting local job creation and Ireland's successful technology economy."

A spokesman for Facebook commented on the move saying, "Similar investments by Facebook have typically led to an economic impact in the order of hundreds of millions of euros, with thousands of jobs supported."

Chief executive of IDA Ireland, Martin Shanahan welcomed the news: "Facebook's existing relationship with Ireland is extremely strong and extensive in scope, but the news that the company wants to build its second European data centre in a regional location such as Meath will cement the relationship even further."