Numbers employed at the south Dublin base of the Irish arm of leading biopharmaceutical firm, Amgen are expected to increase by 728 to 2,544 staff by 2030.
That is according to planning documents lodged by US headquartered Amgen Technology (Ireland) UC concerning the firm's contentious plans for an additional 1,087 new car spaces made up of a six storey 853 space car-park and 234 surface car spaces to deal with its growing employee numbers at its Dun Laoghaire site.
The 1,087 new car-parking spaces will result in an overall provision of 1,303 car parking spaces to serve the wider Amgen Technology site.
A planning report lodged with Dun Laoghaire Rathdown Co Council shows that 1,816 were employed at the firm’s Pottery Rd base in Dun Laoghaire in 2025 and this is to increase by 728 to 2,544 staff by 2030.
The increasing in headcount continues as the report states that numbers employed will increase by 537 on the 2025 total to 2,353 by 2027.
The report states that numbers employed are projected to increase to 2,888 by 2035 commenting that "this represents a substantial increase over the coming 10 year period".
The most recent accounts for applicant firm, Amgen Technology (Ireland) UC show that revenues increased by 41% to $5.62 billion in 2024.
Amgen is the current sponsor of the Irish Open that is to be held at President Donald Trump's Doonbeg golf resort in September.
The planning report drawn up by Hughes Planning and Development Consultants (HPDC) states that the Pottery Rd site "is one of the company’s largest manufacturing sites outside of the US, thus playing a critical role in the global supply of its innovative medicines".
The firm purchased the Pottery Rd site from Pfizer in 2011 and the report states that the medicines produced at the world class manufacturing site produces a wide medicines treat a wide array of conditions including cancer, autoimmune diseases, high cholesterol and rare blood diseases.
The report states that Amgen has significantly intensified its operations at Dun Laoghaire through the adoption of single-use and disposable technologies, enabling multiple compact filing lines within the same campus footprint.
The report states that the production capacity of the facility "is projected to quadruple in the next three to five years with a corresponding increase in workforce requirements to approximately 2,544 personnel in 2030".
The report by that the whilst requested 1,087 new parking spaces "are considered an absolute necessity to support the growth of the campus", Amgen is targeting a reduction in the car-driver mode share to 71% to 2028 "a significant reduction from its current rate, an ambitious goal that Amgen are fully committed to reaching".
However, the scheme is facing opposition from a number of local residents. Julie Flanagan has told the council that the proposed height of the multi-storey car park is overbearing, and should be significantly reduced.
Ms Flanagan states that the council "should be encouraging companies like Amgen to support their staff to use sustainable travel to and from work, rather than facilitating their use of cars. Underground parking should be seriously considered".
Carl McEvoy has told the council that the multi storey car-park’s scale and massing are wholly out of character with the surrounding residential environment and would result in an unacceptable visual dominance and loss of amenity.
Mr McEvoy stated that the development "would significantly impact neighbouring homes through loss of outlook, increased sense of enclosure, and potential loss of daylight".
The Council has now stalled the scheme seeking further information from the applicants.
Reporting by Gordon Deegan
