Data centres would 'throttle local housing and jobs': Clarke

Sinn Féin TD for Longford-Westmeath Sorca Clarke has said that new data centres would throttle housing and business development in Longford and Westmeath.

She was commenting following the release of documents under Freedom of Information 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.

Deputy Clarke said that these documents confirm that we simply cannot absorb data centres without choking out everything else.

Deputy Clarke said: “This briefing warns that if new data centres are located 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, expanding local businesses, or installing charging points for electric vehicles.

“If just one of these centres can consume the energy of 200,000 homes, it’s clear that if one were to be located in Longford or Westmeath the consequences would be severe.

“Longford and Westmeath should not be sacrificed just to keep feeding energy hungry data centres.

“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.”