Documents reveal Apple’s concern about Athenry data centre delays

Galway Bay fm newsroom – It has emerged today that tech giant Apple raised concerns about the delay in Ireland’s planning process in correspondence relating to the application for a data centre in Athenry.
The company has been seeking planning permission for an 850 million euro data centre development in Athenry for almost 3 years.
According to The Times newspaper, briefing material prepared for Taoiseach Leo Varadkar last September reveals that Apple had expressed concern about the ‘indeterminable nature’ of the Irish planning process.
It was ahead of a meeting between the Taoiseach, officials from the Department of Business, Enterprise and Innovation and Apple representatives.
Last October, the High Court rejected attempts to block the development through a Judicial Review, however the objectors are now trying to take the case to the Supreme Court.
Department officials told the Taoiseach prior to his meeting with Apple that the extended timelines in the planning and court processes were “completely at odds” with Apple’s commercial needs.
Since the Apple application, an interdepartmental working group has been set up to examine the government’s approach to data centre developments.