Apple announced plans in February 2015 to build the facility in the rural western town of Athenry to take advantage of green energy sources nearby. But unlike the US where you can get your deal through with negotiations with a tame politician, Europe has strict planning laws which allow those living in the area to appeal aspects of the plan.
In this case, two people appealed and while Ireland’s High Court ruled in October that the data centre could proceed, the appellants then took their case to the country’s Supreme Court.
“Despite our best efforts, delays in the approval process have forced us to make other plans, and we will not be able to move forward with the data centre”, Apple said in a statement ahead of the Supreme Court hearing on Thursday.
“While disappointing, this setback will not dampen our enthusiasm for future projects in Ireland as our business continues to grow”, the company said, citing plans to expand its European headquarters in County Cork where it employs over 6,000 people.
The Tame Apple Press is furious with the situation. Reuters wrote a lecture about how Ireland was dependent on Apple and it better do what it is told.
"Ireland relies on foreign multinational companies like Apple for the creation of one in every ten jobs across the economy and sees major investments such as data centres as a means of securing their presence in the country."
Sure enough, the government is going to amend its planning laws to include data centers as strategic infrastructure, thus allowing them to get through the planning process much more quickly. Of course this will take away voters rights in favour of big corporations, but what does that matter?
“There is no disputing that Apple’s decision is very disappointing, particularly for Athenry and the West of Ireland”, Ireland’s Minister for Business and Enterprise Heather Humphreys said in a statement.
“The Government did everything it could to support this investment... These delays have, if nothing else, underlined our need to make the State’s planning and legal processes more efficient.”
The appeal was based on the fact that there had not been an environmental impact assessment (EIA) of Apple’s entire “masterplan” for eight data halls, which would increase total demand on the national grid by six to eight percent, and not an EIA of just one hall.
The overall grid connection planned at Athenry would have a footprint equal to Dundrum town centre but there is no national assessment and no strategic assessment concerning how data centres being built across the country will be supplied with energy.