Recruitment ‘biggest challenge’ for data centre construction, DECO Engineering co-founder says

Declan Donnelly and Darran Monaghan, co-founders of DECO Engineering.

Recruitment is the biggest challenge facing data centre construction, according to the co-founder of DECO Engineering, a specialist electrical contractor.

The company reported turnover of €27 million in the year ending March 2026, up from €20 million the prior year. It employs over 350 staff and currently operates across Ireland, the UK, Austria, Denmark, Sweden, Finland, Germany, Italy and Spain, with 90 per cent of its business coming from data centres.

"The main challenge at the minute is recruitment," Declan Donnelly, director of DECO Engineering, said.

"It's getting the right people in, the right quality that fits our culture. The whole data centre industry is on a bit of a high at the minute, a lot [firms] are looking for the same type of people. We're having to cast our net further afield just to get suitable people."

In order to help manage the recruitment issue, the Navan-headquartered company has hired engineers that are based in Sweden.

"We need project managers, quantity surveyors. Electricians and guys on the ground are very difficult to get and get the right quality, it's industry wide problem," Donnelly said.

"People are looking further and further afield, I know some companies we've done work for in the past that went to India and South Africa and different places, to try recruit for their own requirements."

Founded in 2022, DECO Engineering has grown rapidly. In its first year it reported turnover of just under €6 million, and has continued to grow since then.

"We've seen that gap in the market coming, in the rise of data centres starting to expand and be built every‐where in Europe," Donnelly said.

"We went on a pretty positive trajectory from then [2022] to doing €20 million to March 2025, and we've done €27 million up to March 2026."

The company has recently formalised an ambitious five-year growth strategy and has already secured in excess of €75 million in projects scheduled for delivery within the next two years, and Donnelly expects further opportunities to arise.

"The positive thing about that €75 million is that it’s actually made up of existing clients. It’s a mixture com‐ panies, [based in] Germany, Italy, Finland and Denmark making up the main crux of that €75 million that's going to be delivered," Donnelly.

"We are well placed to add to it, we believe that there's other opportunities coming up. In the markets we are already in there are new data centres already being approved."

According to Enterprise Ireland figures, Europe’s data centre market is forecast to grow 15 per cent annually and investment projected to rise from €50 billion in 2025 to €90 billion by 2030, driven by AI, cloud adoption, and 5G connectivity.

The main opportunities DECO Engineering expects to benefit from are based in Central Europe and the Nordics.

"We've built up a good reputation across projects in Europe for safety and operation delivery," Donnelly said, adding that on the back of this the company is continuing to invest in its staff and capabilities.

Controversial

Data centres do not come without controversy in Ireland, particularly around the issue of power consumption. However, they aren’t going away, Donnelly said, as they are at "the forefront of everything we do."

"Everything's in the cloud. We need it for banking, we need it for health care. . . they're critical to every country, and they're not going to go anywhere soon," Donnelly said.

"We just have to acknowledge that there's power issue and a sustainability issue. But to me, as a company, we're proud to be involved in these critical infrastructure projects across Europe."

There is also investment going into making the centres more energy efficient, he said.

"One of the projects we did in Finland recently, the surplus heat from the data centre was actually being used for the local district heating to heat the local town," Donnelly said.

Since the end of February energy prices have jumped, stemming from the conflict in the Middle East.

DECO Engineering is seeing some rise in the cost of materials, which suppliers are putting down to the situation in the Middle East.

In addition, a lot of the company’s employees go to different locations for various projects, meaning the company is keeping abreast of the situation in the aviation sector.

"One of the things we are keeping close eye on is the flight prices, and how that’s going to go. Normally in the summer accommodation and flight prices would skyrocket, so we are just keeping an eye on that to see if it’s any different from usual."

However, the conflict has not deterred any of the company’s multinational clients from proceeding with their investments, he said.

"Any of the projects we have a pipeline to start are going ahead, there's no delays on that front yet, and we’re hoping it stays that way."