The long-delayed Apple datacentre in Galway County, Ireland, is no more, Reuters reports-- the iPhone maker says it was "forced to make other plans" by seemingly interminable legal proceedings.
The €850 million facility was announced back in February 2015. Built in 500-acre site around 3 miles from the rural town of Athenry, it was designed to take advantage of green energy sources. However a series of planning appeals delayed approval. The Irish High Court did approve plans for the datacentre in October, but two residents took the matter to the 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 states. "While disappointing, this setback will not dampen our enthusiasm for future projects in Ireland as our business continues to grow.”
Apple is of the biggest foreign multinationals based in Ireland, with a European HQ in County Cork employing over 6000 people. The Irish government is currently looking to amend planning laws to appease such entities, specifically by listing datacentres as strategic infrastructure in order to speed up the planning process.
“There is no disputing that Apple’s decision is very disappointing, particularly for Athenry and the West of Ireland,” Minister for Business and Enterprise Heather Humphreys says. “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.”
Last year Apple opened a similar datacentre in Denmark, and announced plans to build a second EU datacentre in the country.
Go Apple Scraps $1bn Irish Datacentre over Planning Delays (Reuters)
