An effective ban on new data centres in Dublin has been overturned by the Government. 

Amid rising concern about their surging consumption of energy, the Government declined to approve planning applications for the centres. 

However, approvals are now expected to resume following the launch of the Large Energy User Action Plan (LEAP). 

It contends that data centres will be granted planning permission if they address “security of electricity supply and network constraint considerations”. 

A German data centre. Picture by: Sven Hoppe.

On The Pat Kenny Show, Newstalk Political Correspondent Seán Defoe said the State has not managed to oversee the completion of a “huge pile” of renewable energy projects in recent years. 

“A lot of promises with regard to offshore wind, et cetera,” he said. 

“But now there is a new plan going to Cabinet; it's going to be launched by Peter Burke and Darragh O'Brien later. 

“A 17 point plan for increasing the number of data centres - particularly around Dublin. 

“There will be some strings attached, that they'll have to have their own renewable energy generation.” 

A data centre. Picture by: Dmitriy Shironosov / Alamy Stock Photo

In the last Dáil, the Green Party was particularly concerned at the proliferation of data centres - all at a time when Ireland has struggled to hit its climate targets. 

However, Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael have always been concerned about the impact of restricting data centres on economic growth. 

“Micheál Martin, nearly a year ago in an interview that I did with him said, ‘Look, we need to build more data centres, if Ireland wants to stay at the cusp of the tech generation to continue to have those corporation tax receipts coming in, AI is the future,’” Seán added. 

“You don't get more involved in AI without having data centres.”

Main image: A view of a data centre in County Meath.