Dublin City Council Runs a Quantum-Secure Link on Its Own Fibre in IrelandQCI's First Government Use Case

On September 30, 2026 Smart Dublin reported that IrelandQCI had completed its first government use case: a demonstration of quantum-secure communication at Dublin City Council's Wood Quay venue. Quantum communication equipment was deployed on the council's own fibre network to create a secure link between two council buildings, delivered through the Smart Docklands testbed, a collaboration between the council and the CONNECT Centre. The demonstration combined quantum key distribution with encryption methods designed to stay secure in the quantum era.

IrelandQCI is a 10 million euro project co-funded by the European Commission and Ireland's Department of Culture, Communications and Sport, led by the Walton Institute at SETU on behalf of the CONNECT Centre at Trinity College Dublin, with partners including ESB Telecoms and HEAnet. It is building a quantum key distribution network connecting Dublin, Waterford and Cork as part of an EU effort involving 26 member states. This was a demonstration, not a production service.

Our take

The detail that matters is the fibre: the council protected its own links on infrastructure it already owned. Many Canadian municipalities, utilities and community networks are in the same position, with dark fibre between their own buildings and plants. The hardware stays. The keys change. Quantum-safe from the first splice applies to the fibre you already have, not only to new builds, and it starts with knowing what protects those links today.