Bríd Smith (Dublin South Central, People Before Profit Alliance)
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771. To ask the Minister for Housing, Planning, and Local Government if applications for data centres can go directly to An Bord Pleanála; if data centres are or will be deemed to be strategic infrastructure; if current applications still go to local authorities; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [19846/21]

Peter Burke (Longford-Westmeath, Fine Gael)
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Currently, applications for planning permission for data centres are made under section 34 of the Planning and Development Act 2000, as amended (the Act), to the relevant planning authority, with the possibility of subsequent appeal to An Bord Pleanala.

Section 49 of the Planning and Development (Amendment) Act 2018 amended the Seventh Schedule of the Act, relating to Strategic Infrastructure Development (SID), inserting a new class of development in the Schedule - "Communications and Data Infrastructure" comprising “a facility consisting of one or more than one structure, the combined gross floor space of which exceeds 10,000 square metres, used primarily for the storage, management and dissemination of data, and the provision of associated electricity connections infrastructure.”. Under section 37A of the Act, planning applications in respect of SID proposals are made directly to the Board. However, section 49 of the 2018 Act has not yet been commenced.