No: Rosi Leonard
For a long time, the reason given for so many data centres being located in Ireland was simply the weather. In a cold, damp climate, it was suggested, the servers storing data for the likes of Amazon and Meta would be less likely to overheat, reducing cooling costs. It soon became obvious that this wasn’t the case. In Meta’s data centre in Meath, for example, the company uses more water than any other Meta data centre in the world.
So why has the Government uncritically accepted data centres as a force for good, despite all the evidence to the contrary?
Since 2015 data centre electricity use has rocketed by 400 per cent, now soaking up 21 per cent of our electricity demand – which is more than all urban homes in the country. For context, the European average is 3 per cent.
We have some of the highest energy bills in Europe and one of the most fossil fuel- reliant energy systems. We need to roll out renewables fast to reduce polluting emissions, tackle high energy costs and build a more resilient and cleaner system.
But the proliferation of data centres is preventing this – indeed demand from data centres outstripped all additional wind energy between 2017 and 2023. And this situation is expected to deteriorate with data centres projected to guzzle more than 30 per cent of electricity demand in the next 10 years.
Given the colossal rise of data centres and resulting impacts on our environment and energy systems, Ireland is now presented internationally as a poster-child of poor planning and regulation. EirGrid was forced to restrict data centre development in the Dublin area due to the extreme pressures being placed on the grid.
Rather than put brakes on the industry, the Government has left the problem to state bodies and local councils to figure out how these developments – which demand so much water, electricity and land – fit in with other vital infrastructure such as housing and services.
And it gets riskier: despite the programme for government’s pledge to develop data centres “in alignment with our decarbonisation objectives”, data centre developers are increasingly seeking direct connections to the gas network. Even by Gas Networks Ireland’s most conservative projections, the additional demand from data centres connecting to gas will blow our legally binding carbon limits.
Government now supports importing liquefied natural gas (LNG) in the name of energy security. Yet it is data centres that are risking this security and pumping up the need for gas. The US company pitching to build an LNG terminal in Kerry plans to develop data centres on their site. Clearly their business model is not to support households who keep seeing their bills rise, but to lock in demand for some of the most expensive and harmful gas in the world.
Neither our energy system nor our decarbonisation commitments were planned to serve the needs of one industry
The promise of jobs has not been forthcoming, with the previous Minister for Trade unable to explain how many staff data centres employ when built. Artificial intelligence (AI) is being used as the latest reason to let data centre developers expand their portfolios – while companies boast about cutting staff due to the roll out of artificial intelligence.
There is a fundamental injustice at the heart of government policy: neither our energy system nor our decarbonisation commitments were planned to serve the needs of one industry. The Coalition’s vision of making Ireland the data centre capital of the world is working against the needs of communities and it creates a two-tier system where one industry is allowed to do as it wants.
The worse the problem gets, the clearer the answer becomes: we need a moratorium on new data centre development and a policy framework that respects environmental and energy limits. Then and only then can we ensure a just energy transition that is in the interest of people, not Big Tech.
Rosi Leonard is data centre campaign lead at Friends of the Earth Ireland
Yes: Garry Connolly
In the same way we cannot imagine functioning without water or electricity, in today’s modern society data serves a similar purpose. Every ticket we book, text we receive, purchase we make online, call we make to 999 or CAT scan reviewed by a doctor generates data. Much like water needs a reservoir to be stored or electricity needs batteries to be saved, data needs data centres (also known as “The Cloud”) to be processed.
Why has Ireland become a destination for all this data?
Over the past 60 years, Ireland’s economy has transformed from being primarily agricultural to one driven by data-based foreign direct investment (FDI), nurturing knowledge workers across sectors like pharmaceuticals, finance, life sciences and information and communication technology (ICT). The relationship with “data” began with mainframes in the 1960s to leading the world in software localisation exports via floppy disk in the 1990s to data exports via data centres and fibre today.
Data centres are a critical, visible indicator to the rest of the world that Ireland is open for FDI business. The Technology Ireland business association says the technology sector in Ireland employs more than 270,000 people, with the country hosting 16 of the top 20 global tech companies and the top three enterprise software providers.
The Irish digital infrastructure ecosystem also contributes about €228 billion in ICT exports, representing 57 per cent of Ireland’s service exports. Ireland ranks third globally in digitally delivered services, holding a 10.3 per cent share of world exports in this sector.
Ireland today competes globally with the best for IP and knowledge-based sectors. Our geography also puts us in an envious position of having nine times more sea mass than land mass, which provides vast access to renewable wind energy. Converting this abundant resource of green electricity into a retail product – that is, data via data centres – for export is the greatest return on investment we could make that is completely under our own control in a time of geopolitical uncertainty.
We are now at risk of exporting our talent away due to the lack of digital infrastructure activity at home in Ireland
It also puts Ireland firmly at the intersection of two of today’s biggest global challenges, trends and opportunities: digitalisation and decarbonisation. Cloud Infrastructure Ireland (CII), part of Ibec, says data centres will play a crucial role in underwriting new renewable energy capacity on the grid and help grow a decarbonised economy.
“Data centres can benefit offshore wind by providing the revenue certainty required to attract investment and to deploy projects. Vice versa, this offshore wind generation can help decarbonise Ireland’s data centre capacity – the critical infrastructure acting as the bedrock of Ireland’s digitalisation,” a CII report says.
Ireland’s lack of clarity and consistency in power policy, and draconian planning system, have resulted in a severely inadequate grid that jeopardises our position in the trillion-dollar global digital infrastructure industry, risking billions in AI investments and diminishing our global competitiveness.
Despite this, Irish companies are quietly but powerfully shaping the landscape of digital infrastructure around the world. Ireland is recognised as the trusted partner for designing, building and supplying digital infrastructure globally. We are now at risk of exporting our talent away due to the lack of digital infrastructure activity at home in Ireland.
We must stop being complacent. Ireland’s position as a FDI leader did not happen by chance. It was due to the creative, brave and relentless actions taken by those who saw the potential of what Ireland could become. Harnessing our natural renewable resources and “making” digital products and services to export will assist in keeping Ireland relevant in this fifth industrial age.
Much like Ireland’s rugby success did not come overnight, but rather through years of grassroots and academy work, we must continue innovating and building the infrastructure that will be needed in the next decade to keep us competitive.
Garry Connolly is the founder of Digital Infrastructure Ireland
