Seán Kyne (Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I marched in November 2016 in support of the €850 million Apple data centre in Athenry. I still believe that if data centres are needed, as I believe they are, they should be spread regionally and in terms of the grid connection. It should be noted that the Apple data centre project has been granted planning permission by Galway County Council for some time.It was granted by An Bord Pleanála and that decision was upheld in mid-2016. That decision was also upheld by the High Court, the Court of Appeal and the Supreme Court. I have spoken previously on the issues and problems with our planning process and more so on the legal challenges to and judicial reviews of planning decisions that have taken place, which are too prevalent. I, therefore, welcome comments by the Attorney General and the Minister of State at the Department of Housing, Local Government and Heritage, Deputy Peter Burke, on the Government's plans to speed up the planning process. The plans being considered include a dedicated planning court, which I called for in 2017 in the midst of the debate on the Apple data centre project. As well as construction and permanent jobs in the data centre, having Apple, the world’s largest company, with a centre in Galway, would be a major incentive to more and continued multinational investment. The spin-off of having an Apple data centre in Athenry would be major. The area from Athenry to Oranmore has been designated as an economic corridor in the Galway county development plan for some years. With water, grid, rail and motorway connections, the area is well suited as an economic driver for the county. Because of the issues in Athenry we changed legislation to categorise data centres as critical infrastructure but in May 2018 Apple announced it was not proceeding with the development. However, it is important to note it still has planning permission. I, therefore, welcome the decision of Apple to apply to Galway County Council for a five-year extension to its planning permission. If granted, I hope Apple will be able to proceed, at speed, and as soon as possible. It gave an absolute commitment at the time it would look at green energy as the source of energy for that important project. There was some small degree of opposition to the project but it would have been, and still had the potential to be, a major boom to the area of Athenry, Oranmore and County Galway.

I call for a debate on the issue of planning, as I have previously, for projects such as this one and also projects ranging from greenways to road projects to the critically important issue of housing. I welcome the comments by the Attorney General and the Minister of State, Deputy Peter Burke, relating to planning. It is an extremely important area and one on which the Government is right to focus. I hope it can do so to allow for a speeding up of the process at an early juncture. I look forward to a debate on that issue in the near future.