Apple takes €2m bite from Council coffers

Apple’s decision not to proceed with a data centre in Athenry, following a protracted planning and legal process, is costing Galway County Council €2 million annually.

Apple scrapped its plans for the €850 million data centre in May 2018 after it spent several years seeking approval for construction of the plant.

Director of Services for Finance at the local authority, Ger Mullarkey, in a briefing with local politicians last week, said the Council’s commercial rates’ budget was worse-off every year to the tune of €2 million as a direct result of the Apple decision.

Galway East TD, Anne Rabbitte said the total loss to the cash-strapped local authority, over the next term of the Council, was €10 million.

The Fianna Fáil spokesperson on children and youth affairs and European Parliament candidate for Midlands-North-West said the County Council was struggling to balance the books and wasn’t helped by to the Apple debacle, which was “a failure of planning.”

“The council has lost out on a potential €10 million over the next five years and all because of failures in our planning system. That is simply a disgrace. If the government had a regulatory framework in place, this whole saga wouldn’t have occurred.

“At a time when smaller businesses are facing higher rates, this income would have helped bolster the Council’s budget and relieve some of the financial pressure it faces, which in turn helps improve services for everyone,” she said.

For more, read this week’s Connacht Tribune.

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