Future of €850m Apple data centre in doubt
Fears are being expressed for the future of Apple's proposed €850m data centre in Galway.
It comes amid reports that the company's CEO Tim Cook told Taoiseach Leo Varadkar the Athenry project was no longer an immediate priority.
Speaking to RTÉ News, the Taoiseach said: "No not confirmed. We didn't get a start date, or a definite commitment or anything like that.
"But certainly from our point of view, we really impressed on them very strongly how much the Government is behind the project, how we will do anything within our power to facilitate it and how the people of Galway and Athenry in particular really want it to happen."
Taoiseach says Apple CEO Tim Cook did not confirm that the planned Athenry data centre will go ahead https://t.co/YLw3nIUUgg pic.twitter.com/XiWr2mrabv
— RTÉ News (@rtenews) November 3, 2017
Earlier this week, the High Court cleared the way for the centre to go ahead, following lengthy legal efforts to block it on environmental grounds.
Galway East Fianna Fáil TD Anne Rabbitte says it proves the need for changes to our planning laws.
"Fastracking these projects is critical," she said.
"The fact that where we sit with Brexit, the fact that we've known that there are seven or eight data centres looking to come into Ireland, they're all sitting and watching to see how this planning process was going to go, how it was going to go through the courts, and how long it was going to take.
"We need to learn lessons from what we have experience in Athenry."
