New data centres would throttle housing and business development in Tipperary

Tipperary Sinn Féin Cllrs Annemarie Ryan and David Dunne have stated that new data centres would throttle housing and business development in Tipperary.

The councillors were commenting following the release of documents under FOI to Sinn Féin MEP Lynn Boylan which show that a single data centre in West Dublin consumes enough energy to power 200,000 homes - this is 10 times the demand of a nearby pharmaceutical plant which employs 2,000 people.

READ MORE: Tipperary stories that demonstrate love, caring, and respect

Cllr Annemarie Ryan said that these documents confirm that we simply cannot absorb data centres without choking out everything else. "What we are seeing is vital electricity capacity meant for new homes is being seized by data centres. Cllr Ryan added that ordinary people are being forced to pay the price not only through blocked housing projects but also rising energy bills.

“These documents warn us that if new data centres are in areas outside Dublin, they would rapidly exhaust whatever electricity capacity there is on the grid. It also warns that these centres would likely restrict other developments, including the building of new homes," said Cllr Ryan.

Cllr David Dunne stated “If just one of these centres can consume the energy of 200,000 homes, it’s clear that if one were to be located across South Tipperary the consequences would be severe.

READ NEXT: The personal touch has seen a Tipperary business flourish

"Tipperary should not be sacrificed just to keep feeding energy hungry data centres" he added
Cllr Dunne concluded "We should be using the power that we have to build homes and give young people the opportunity to build a future in their own communities, to support local businesses and farms - not surrendering it all to profit hungry data centres that create very few local jobs."