In a Policy Statement released this morning, 07 June, the Department of Business, Enterprise and Innovation committed to a plan-led development.
The statement addressed four main aims:
• drive Ireland's ambition in the digital economy as a location of choice for investment and a seed-bed for technology entrepreneurship across a range of sectors and activities;
• contribute to regional development, deliver associated economic activities and support the creation of high quality, sustainable jobs;
• align enterprise electricity demand with generation capacity and transmission planning;
• and ensure that potential downside costs are minimised and that economic impact is optimised.
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This comes after a government agreement was made last October to strengthen the Strategic Policy Framework around the development of data centres in Ireland.
Heather Humphreys, the Minister for Business, Enterprise and Innovation, highlighted the importance of data centres: "The demand for data centres is there and this Policy Statement is about having a coherent strategic plan in place to deal with that demand. This is a joined-up, cross-Government approach on their development in Ireland.
"We all know that data centres present challenges given that they're very energy intensive, however, they are also critically important to ensuring that Ireland continues to be a leader in the digital economy. This is about striking a balance between the challenges and opportunities.
"While the number of people directly employed in data centres is relatively small, the fact is there are over 100,000 employed in ICT companies here. The reality is many of those companies need data centres to facilitate their activities and continued growth."
Ms Humphreys reinforced that a strategy is needed to ensure the developments are successfully constructed.
She added: "If companies do want to set up data centres in Ireland, we need to be selective and target investments that deliver real economic benefits."
(CM)
