Apple scraps plan for €850 million data centre in Athenry
irishtimes.com/business/tec … -1.3490316
looks like the NIMBYs won
Apple forced to scrap €850 million data centre - Athenry
mr_anderson
#2
How long before Athenry residents are blaming the government for not bringing jobs to the ‘forgotten’ parts of Ireland ?
What’s important to understand is that it’s not just Apple that have left, it’s anyone else considering investing there.
No major employer is going to risk getting bogged down in basic planning issues.
Thing_Fish
#3
They wont have to, they can apply directly to an bord pleanala who will dutifully rubber stamp whatever plans they have.
HouseBuyer
#4
The vast majority of residents of Athenry were for this scheme. It was one guy and his partner who objected, the crazy thing was that he wasn’t against having the data center, he just wanted Apple to develop it on land that he was connected to.
irishtimes.com/news/ireland … -1.3322548
Meanwhile, Denmark gets a second Apple data center, the first was announced at the same time as the one in Athenry, but is already built.
You are correct to state, the reputational damage to Ireland here is just awful.
This really ties in with the legal thread.
The original application was lodged in April 2015, and re-approved by ABP after appeal in August 2016. That’s not great but hardly excessive for such a large development.
Since then it has spent almost two years in the courts, partly due to a shortage of judges.
Now, whilst the legal profession can hardly be accused of excessive concern for productivity in the administration of justice, it’s surely a government responsibility to ensure sufficient capacity in the system.
This gombeenisim, greed, selfishness, canny McSavvyness and cute horeness is why we cant have nice things.
owenm
#8
If he’d been junior minister for something at the time you wonder how far he would have gotten…
Luan
#10
You need to go north of the border to experience true corruption - 1970’s Ireland pales into insignificance.
TheJackal
#12
A Supreme Court appeal by local residents against An Bord Pleanala’s decision to grant planning permission to Apple to build a data centre in Athenry, Co Galway has been rejected.
However, the decision will have no immediate impact on the €850 million project, as Apple has already shelved plans for the facility.
Nevertheless, the judgment is being seen as important determination of issues around Environmental Impact Assessments (EIA) that could impact future infrastructure projects.
Blindjustice
#14
Did that amendment banning data centres pass?
Are irish people simply outsourcing data related co2 emissions or are we just not going to use as much data as others in the future ?