Apple's huge European HQ in Ireland is about to get even bigger

Apple has been given permission to construct a new building at its European headquarters in Ireland, The Irish Times reports.

The expansion, which was approved by local planning body An Bord Pleanála following a number of appeals, will allow Apple to employ an additional 1,000 people at its Hollyhill campus in Cork over the next 18 months.

Up to 200 people will be hired to construct the new four-storey office block and a car park with 725 spaces, according to The Irish Times, which says the building should be operational by the middle of next year.

Apple currently employs around 5,500 people across Ireland, with the vast majority of those spread across two Cork locations.

But Apple CEO Tim Cook announced in November last year that he wants to employ an additional 1,000 workers at Apple's Hollyhill campus in Cork by spring 2017. Prior to Cook's announcement, Apple reportedly grew the size of its Cork workforce by 25% in the space of 12 months.

Business Insider visited Apple's Hollyhill campus in February and saw the building proposals outlined on planning permission documents attached to fences and wooden poles.

Apple's Hollyhill campus already spans several buildings dating back to when Apple first moved to Ireland in 1980. In addition to a large customer services team, the headquarters also has an iMac manufacturing facility, as well people working in retail store logistics.

But Apple's expansion plans could be thwarted by a shortage of housing in Cork.

Employees at Apple and other Cork-based technology companies told Business Insider in February that they and many of their colleagues are struggling to find places to live in Cork, which has a population of around 120,000 people.

An employee at local technology firm Voxpro, which employs hundreds of people in Cork who provide customer care for Airbnb, Google, and other companies, said: "Housing is a huge issue in Cork this year. Companies like Apple, Amazon, and Voxpro are expanding and employing a lot more people. Most of them are young and a high percentage of them come from abroad. Everyone needs accommodation and the demand exceeds supply."

Apple is also building an €850 million (£641 million) data centre just outside a small town called Athenry, County Galway, on the west coast of Ireland. The data centre was approved by An Bord Pleanála earlier this month.