Niall Collins (Limerick County, Fianna Fail)
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348. To ask the Minister for Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation the status of IDA plans to find land suitable for new data centres; the number of sites in each county that are being considered, in tabular form; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [5192/17]

Mary Mitchell O'Connor (Dún Laoghaire, Fine Gael)
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I understand that IDA Ireland is currently seeking submissions to undertake a study to identify potential strategic land banks in Ireland for the sustainable development of large-scale data centre projects. The closing date for the receipt of submissions is 21 February 2017.

This study will evaluate all viable land options nationally and will be conducted over a number of stages. For a site to be considered suitable, I am informed that it must be both supported by the necessary infrastructure and compatible with the evolving needs of data centre investments.

This study is part of IDA Ireland's wider strategy to ensure that Ireland and its regions are best able to win and sustain mobile data centre investments of scale. In recent times companies including Facebook, Apple, Microsoft and Google have announced significant data centre investments for Ireland and the goal is to ensure that this trend continues.