Tech giants demand government support for expansion of data centres

The call by Google, Amazon and Microsoft comes as tensions have begun to emerge about the impact of data centres on Ireland’s energy security and climate goals

Michael McCarthy: a new government policy was now urgent to ensure Ireland did not “cut off our economic nose to spite our face”. Picture: John Allen

Google, Amazon and Microsoft are demanding that the government release a new policy statement on data centres, expressing clear support for their continued expansion and directing all other government departments and state bodies to fall in line with that policy.

Michael McCarthy, the former Labour TD and now director of Cloud Infrastructure Ireland (CII), which represents Google, Amazon and Microsoft, told the Business Post that a new government policy was now urgent to ensure Ireland ...