Billion-dollar debacle: Apple drops Irish deal after planning fiasco
Varadkar begs tech boss to stick with stalled €850m Athenry project
IRELAND faces losing out on major multi-million euro investments after Apple appeared to pull the plug on its €850m data centre for Athenry.
Taoiseach Leo Varadkar promised the technology giant the Government “will do anything within our power to facilitate” the plant’s construction, which has been caught up in the planning process for two years.
However, Apple CEO Tim Cook refused to give any “definite commitment” to the investment, signalling it is off the table for the foreseeable future.
The move is a major blow to Ireland’s reputation as a location for foreign direct investment, and has cast a heavy shadow over the first trade mission to the US by Mr Varadkar.
“I told him about the fact that there were people protesting on the streets in favour of this investment, how unusual that was, and also how it was a particularly good investment for us because it’s west of the Shannon,” the Taoiseach said. However, he admitted Mr Cook refused to confirm the company is still interested in proceeding.
IRELAND faces losing out on major multi-million euro investments after Apple appeared to pull the plug on its €850m data centre for Athenry.
Taoiseach Leo Varadkar promised the tech giant that the Irish Government “will do anything within our power to facilitate” the plant’s construction, which has been caught up in the planning process for two years.
However, Apple CEO Tim Cook refused to give any “definite commitment” to the investment, signalling that it is off the table for the foreseeable future.
The move is a major blow to Ireland’s reputation as a location for foreign direct investment and has cast a heavy shadow over an otherwise successful first trade mission to the US by Mr Varadkar.
“I explained that it was a project that has enormous support in the area,” Mr Varadkar said last night. “I told him about the fact that there were people protesting on the streets in favour of this investment, how unusual that was, how important that was and also how it was a particularly good investment for us because it’s west of the Shannon.” But he admitted Mr Cook refused to give a start date for the project, or even confirm that the company is still interested in proceeding with it.
Cabinet sources have now warned that the development could cause doubts among other multi-national companies looking to invest in Ireland post-Brexit. One senior minister spoke of concerns of a “domino effect” if the development – which could create hundreds of construction jobs – does not go ahead.
Fianna Fáil said it is now clear that a special infrastructure court needs to be established to deal with planning applications.
Apple announced the west of Ireland investment in 2015, but the scheme has been plagued by planning difficulties ever since.
Earlier this week, the High Court appeared to clear the way for the development to begin.
But the tech giant is extremely frustrated that its plans have been delayed by more than two years.
Plans for a similar plant in
Denmark were also announced in 2015, and that centre is almost ready for operation. Apple is now expected to develop a second data centre in Denmark.
Mr Varadkar raised the company’s plans for Athenry during a meeting with Mr Cook in Silicon Valley on Thursday.
Speaking in San Francisco last night, the Taoiseach insisted he does not believe the debacle will have an affect on future investment opportunities, because what happened in Athenry was “not the norm”.
“There are lots of data centres all over Ireland, and they get through the planning process with relative ease, so I don’t think this delay in Athenry because of the courts and because of the planning process is typical,” he told the Irish Independent. “Having said that, we are going to make some changes. We’ve already decided as a Government that we’re going to designate data centres as strategic infrastructure, so they’ll be like big hospitals, motorways, big infrastructural projects and that will allow them to skip a whole planning step.”
He added that the Government will develop “a very clear policy around data centres, where they should be located and how energy should be provided for them”.
Despite Mr Varadkar’s comments, the decision by Apple has caused deep concern among ministers. “The planning process needs to change and we will do that. But the concern is that this will cause a domino effect,” said one Cabinet source.