The Supreme Court has dismissed an application by opponents of a 200MW €1.6bn data centre for the outskirts of Ennis for leave to appeal against a High Court decision clearing all legal hurdles here faced by the project.
In its determination, the Supreme Court has dismissed the three grounds put forward in the leave to appeal application by opponents of the data centre, Colin Doyle, Friends of the Irish Environment CLG, Futureproof Clare, Martin Knox and Christine Sharp.
The Supreme Court found that the application does not meet the constitutional threshold required for leave to be granted to appeal the High Court upholding the planning permission granted by An Coimisiún Pleanála (ACP) to Art Data Centres Ltd.
In its determination, the Supreme Court found that in the circumstances “no point of general public importance arises” in the grounds put forward by the appellants.
The objectors had argued that the construction of the data centre and its failure to offset greenhouse-gas emissions is of general public importance in the context of climate targets.
However, in reply ACP submitted that the fact a project may cause emissions is not a basis for alleging that exceptional circumstances arise as to do so ignores all attempts made by the Commission to mitigate greenhouse-gas emissions.
The Supreme Court determination follows High Court judge, Mr Justice Richard Humphreys dismissing a leave to appeal application in June by the objectors.
The conclusion of the legal fight here against the data centre follows more than two years after in April 2024, ACP granting planning permission to Art Data Centres Ltd comprising six data halls covering 145 acres or 1.3m sq ft on lands adjacent to the Tulla Rd on the eastern outskirts of Ennis near Junction 13 on the M18 motorway connecting Galway to Limerick.
The project is to generate substantial employment during both the construction phase and the long term operational life of the facility – up to 1,200 in construction, thousands more in support jobs and services, up to a 1,000 permanent jobs and the under-pinning of thousands more in digital industries.
Joint founders of the Art Data Centres, Tom McNamara and Vincent Fogarty said on Monday that the ruling “recognises that there is a future for environmentally-sensitive data centre developments like ours, where there is responsible use of renewable energy, grid-supporting generation technology and heat-recycling for both agri-food and local heating schemes”.
The two stated that the Supreme Court ruling “is great news for this data centre campus and for Clare as the project will be a key pillar of the Ennis 2040 Economic Plan for the area”.
The two stated that the project’s scale at 200MW “will be attractive to the largest technology partners in the world and the project represents the culmination of more than ten years of preparatory work”.
They said that the Ennis project “is probably the only data centre of this scale approved in Ireland for seven years and the only one of this scale that will be built in the next decade”.
The two men said that the infrastructure that is available in the Ennis site “will assist government in national ambitions to deliver vital ongoing opportunities for the country in the tech industry”.
The two stated that the connection applications can now be finally processed following the Supreme Court ruling “and work will commence in 2027 as soon as all is in place”.
