IDA chief confirms Apple has no immediate plans for Athenry site

The prospect that Apple will ever build its long-delayed €850million data centre in the fields of Athenry has receded after the head of the IDA confirmed the company has no plans for the site in the foreseeable future.

Martin Shanahan, the IDA's chief executive, expressed his "disappointment" at how delays in dealing with the computer giant's planning application had potentially derailed a "hard won" investment.

However he also suggested that he did not believe “this is the final word” on the matter.

Mr Shanahan welcomed Government proposals to bring data centre developments under the critical infrastructure framework in order for data centre planning applicants to be fast-tracked and such a move would “reduce uncertainty”.

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As part of the changes, data centres will be considered strategic infrastructure and enterprises who wish to build them will apply for permission directly to An Bord Pleanála instead of first being compelled to seek planning permission from the local authority. It has come too late to make any difference to the Apple project.

“The planning process has taken longer than anyone would have expected,” Mr Shanahan said adding that while Apple was continuing “to consider Athenry in the context of their future business plans” it has “not committed to commencing the data centre immediately”.

Speaking on RTÉ radio on Sunday Mr Shanahan said it was disappointing that the project had reached this point.

“This was hard won investment in the first instance and it would be a significant investment for Athenry and for the West and the fact that it has been delayed through the planning process for the last two years is disappointing and the fact that it is not proceeding now immediately is disappointing.”

He said the IDA would have to “see how Apple considers it in the future” and he committed to continuing to work with the company in the future.

He expressed the hope that the process “may not be finished there” and described the situation as an “outlier” while playing down concerns that it might make other multi-nationals reconsider locating major projects in the Republic.

Mr Shanahan admitted that doubts about Apple’s commitment to building the data centre in Athenry had mounted over recent months as the delays in the planning process continued.

Those doubts intensified late last week when the company's chief executive Tim Cook failed to give Taoiseach Leo Varadkar a commitment about the project.

Speaking at the company's headquarters in California Mr Varadkar said he had "really impressed on them very strongly how much the Government is behind the project, how we will do anything within our power to facilitate it and how the people of Galway and Athenry in particular really want it to happen."