Amazon sought clarity on changes to data centre planning rules

Tech giant lobbied government to delay planning rules for data centres, which will not come into force until later this year

It has emerged that Amazon Web Services lobbied the government to delay new fast-track planning rules for data centres so that it could get more clarity on how they will operate.

The new provision will classify data centres above a specified threshold as strategic infrastructure developments (SIDs) which can be submitted directly to An Bord Pleanala (ABP) without going through a local authority first.

The government had proposed introducing the change and holding ...