Facebook Company’s Chief Operating Officer, Sheryl Sandberg said 1,000 new jobs will be added at Dublin’s new Corporate Campus

Facebook Ireland’s Irish head of office, Garreth Lambe, said that the new campus can accommodate up to 7,000 staff. Facebook also recently opened a facility in Dublin’s East Wall, where it employs hundreds of contractors.

Facebook is to add 1,000 new jobs at its Dublin operation, the company’s chief operating officer, Sheryl Sandberg said today.

Ms Sandberg said that the new jobs will see the company reach an employment level of almost 5,000 by the end of the year, up from 4,000 at present.

The new jobs will be at Facebook’s new corporate campus, occupying what used to be the AIB centre in Ballsbridge.

Ms Sandberg was in Dublin to address a small business event, ‘Gather’, for over 500 businesses from around Europe.

She was also scheduled to meet with European Affairs Minister Helen McEntee, and the Irish Data Protection Commissioner, Helen Dixon.

The Irish DPC has two separate investigations into Facebook at present relating to data breaches over the last 12 months.

Ms Sandberg told the conference today that Facebook is trying to change the way it handles controversial issues, such as election interference and hate speech.

“Facebook is a very different company to what it was in 2016 or even a year ago,” she said.

Key priority areas, she said, include “the safety and security of Facebook’s users, the commitment to cracking down on fake accounts and false news, strengthening defences against election interference and being even more transparent in how it operates and makes decisions, to make itself more publicly accountable”.

Facebook’s staff are divided between Dublin, as well as Cork where it has Facebook Reality Lab, and Meath where its data centre is located.

The company’s activities here include Facebook, WhatsApp, Instagram and Oculus.

Ms Sandberg said that Facebook is tripling its investment in online safety programmes run by the National Anti-Bullying Centre (ABC) and SpunOut.ie, to €1m.

She said that the money will go to supporting research conducted by the ABC, expanding the nationwide online safety training program for teachers and parents of secondary school students and creating an online safety resource for teens in partnership with SpunOut.ie.