Councillors support 'co-ordinated strategic approach' on data centres

Derry City and Strabane District councillors have passed a motion calling for the North’s Economy and Infrastructure ministers to develop a “co-ordinated strategic policy” on data centres.

The motion, brought by Independent councillors Paul Gallagher, Gary Donnelly and Raymond Barr, and Cllr Shaun Harkin (PBP), was discussed at Council’s June plenary on Wednesday.

Opening the debate, Cllr Gallagher said the A5 legal judgement delivered this week said government departments had a duty to publish sectoral plans for their remit.

“The Department for the Economy is responsible for the production of sectoral plans for the energy sector,” added Cllr Gallagher, “and the Department for Infrastructure must publish sectoral plans which include proposals and policies for planning.

“[The judgement] again reinforced the need for central government to get on top of how large scale emitters like data centres might impact on our security and on the release of greenhouse gasses.”

Supporting the motion, Cllr Sandra Duffy (Sinn Féin) described 2025 as “a critical juncture in Ireland’s energy future”.

“Across this entire country, people are doing their part reducing energy use, installing solar panels, moving to electric vehicles, and they are making the transition to cleaner, more secure energy systems.

“And they rightly expect their government and policy makers will show the same level of planning and responsibility.

“That is why the growth of data centres without proper regulation has raised serious and valid concerns.

“In just a few short years, data centres have gone from being a niche part of our energy landscape to being one of the most dominant players.

“They now account for almost 20% of Ireland’s electricity demand and that figure could rise significantly by the end of the decade. That level of growth, if left unmanaged puts a real strain on our energy systems,” said Cllr Duffy.

Cllr Sean Mooney, supporting the motion on behalf of the SDLP, quoted Dr Paul Deane, senior lecturer in Clean Energy at University College Cork, who said: “Building a data centre in any other country in northwest Europe would produce less climate pollution than building it in Ireland”.

Cllr Raymond Barr said one of the main reasons for the judgement in the A5 case was that the Department for Infrastructure “failed to produce evidence the Climate Act had been complied with".

He added: “That being the case, there are surely lessons to be learned around the implications of how the Climate Act needs to be considered when planning applications around infrastructure projects such as data centres are submitted.”

Cllr Shaun Harkin (PBP) said legislators in the South were saying that data centres were “hijacking the energy grid and blocking the development of desperately needed housing”.

“I think that should give us pause for reflection given there is a housing crisis here in The North but there is also a housing crisis in Donegal and there needs to be regulation of data centres.

“There are huge profits being made from them but clearly we have a situation where it is out of control in the South because the government there has had an enabling culture when it comes to data centres and does not have a strategy to address the housing crisis,” Cllr Harkin said.

The full text of the successful data centre motion read: “Members recognise that data centres are major consumers of electricity that currently threaten Ireland’s energy security as well as this Council’s commitment to play its part in meeting our obligations to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, as set out in the Strategic Planning Policy Statement, our Local Development Plan 2032 and the Climate Change Act (Northern Ireland) 2022.

“Given Ireland operates a single electricity market, this Council notes with concern the significant demand that data centres in the 26 counties now impose on the national grid, which is expected to rise dramatically over the next five years.

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“Moreover, this Council is concerned that the absence of any overarching government policy or guidance on planning for data centres in the Six Counties is not conducive to monitoring and managing energy security and greenhouse gas emissions at a strategic level.

“Therefore, in the national interests of energy security and climate change, this Council will write to the Ministers for Infrastructure and the Economy calling for their Departments to: Urgently develop a co-ordinated strategic policy on how planning applications for data centres across all council areas are to be managed and monitored for; their impacts on climate change; their demands on the national grid; including whether proposals that are large scale emitters should be considered as regionally significant developments.

“Further, this Council will write to other local authorities calling on them to support our call for a central government policy and guidance on applications for data centres.”