An opponent of Apple's stalled plans for an €850 million data centre in Co Galway has failed in preventing online giant Amazon securing planning permission for the first phase of its planned €1 billion data centre in north Dublin.
This follows An Bord Pleanála dismissing the appeal lodged by Athenry-based engineer Allan Daly, and giving Amazon's Irish unit, Amazon Data Services Ireland Limited (ADSIL), the green light for the centre.
Amazon currently employs 2,500 staff in Ireland and its web services division already has a number of data centres in Dublin, but its Mulhuddart plan- dubbed “Project G” – is its most ambitious to date here.
ADSIL plans to build a 223,000 sq ft data centre in Mulhuddart initially, and has told Fingal County Council it might build seven more data centres on the 26-hectare IDA-owned site.
Digital infrastructure
Recommending that planning be granted,
John Desmond
, a senior planning inspector with the appeals board, said the provision of such major digital infrastructure, comprising a major data centre, “must surely be viewed positively”.
In support of the plan, the IDA told the appeals board that it views data-centre facilities and infrastructure as crucial to Ireland’s ongoing competitiveness.
The board held a two-day oral hearing into the appeal in September. In his appeal, Mr Daly stated that ADSIL has failed to provide data in terms of how much power from the grid the new centre would require.
At the oral hearing, ADSIL withdrew plans for a proposed 220kV substation and clarified that the grid connection did not form part of the application.
