In 2022 South Dublin County Council passed an amendment to the County Development plan, submitted by People Before Profit councillor, Madeleine Johansson, to ban new data centres. The Minister for State, Peter Burke, overturned that decision because he claimed it did not align with national policy.
Working with Friends of the Earth, Cllr Jess Spear submitted motion to the Council to write to the Minister for Climate and the Environment requesting a national moratorium on further data centre expansion. An amendment by Cllr Helen Farrell that would allow data centre expansion as long as they were “demonstrably powered 100% by renewables” was rejected by Cllr Spear and 14 other councillors who voted for the original motion.
Cllr Spear said, “Every action taken by governments will determine whether climate change gets worse or we take the necessary steps to get off fossil fuels, reduce the impact on nature, and improve the lives for the vast majority of people on the planet. All the indications suggest this government is not going to take climate change seriously, and none more than their approach towards data centres.
“This is essentially about energy demand and basic maths. The lower the energy demand, the easier and faster we can decarbonise. Fully transitioning to renewable energy simply cannot happen if demand for energy keeps rising.”
On Cllr Farrell’s amendment she said, “Growth in renewable energy isn’t keeping pace to allow more data centres and fully decarbonise our economy. Data centre energy demand in Europe is expected to grow 160% over the next 5 years. Allowing data centres only if they’re powered by renewables means the rest of society continues to run on dirty fossil fuels.”
“Either you treat climate change and housing as emergencies or you don’t. And in an emergency, you have to cut what you don’t need. We don’t need targeted advertisement. We don’t need a massive expansion of AI. We certainly shouldn’t allow the Microsoft data centre at Grange Castle to host data for Israel to target and kill Palestinians.
“The government can say 'We don’t have to choose between housing and data centres,' all they want. But the maths say otherwise. It’s house building at the scale and speed required by an emergency or more data centres. It’s transitioning away from fossil fuels and preventing further climate disruption, or more data centres. We have to choose.”