Irish Data Centres: An Introduction by Not Here, Not Anywhere

Airing on ddr at 4pm on Wednesday, July 15th

Nestled in grey industrial estates and unremarkable warehouse builds lie data centres; halls of hot, whirring computers storing the vast and increasing amounts of data we use everyday. Despite the inconspicuous space they occupy in the Irish urban landscape and the near-total absence they have in our popular conscience, data centres are changing the way we live our lives in more ways than we bargained for. In this special documentary for Dublin Digital Radio, Not Here Not Anywhere investigates the impact data centres are having in Ireland, from energy security to ethical dilemmas. We talk to software engineer Barbara Hegarty and researcher Dr. Patrick Bresnihan to learn more about what data centres are and what challenges they pose, while raising the implications data centres have on our political sphere both at home and abroad.

Multinational companies such as Apple and Amazon are being encouraged by the government to establish data centres in Ireland, in an effort to promote Ireland as a data centre hub as part of their Enterprise Strategy. Each data centre requires huge amounts of energy to function, and the clusters of them already constructed around Dublin has given cause for concern for the capacity of our electricity grid. Nonetheless, construction continues, with Eirgrid estimating that the projected demand from data centres could account for up to 36% of Ireland’s electricity demand by 2030. If Amazon’s eight centre project in Mulhuddart, Dublin 15, is realised, by 2026 it would use c. 4.4% per cent of the State’s entire energy capacity, the equivalent of Galway city, but employ only 30 people post construction, largely in facility maintenance. Often touted as environmentally-friendly, in reality data centres are also poised to impede Ireland’s already lacklustre performance in tackling emissions, as well as posing questions of environmental justice in the form of the energy infrastructure they demand be built for them.

Data centre development in Ireland also comes attached with fresh concerns about politics and ethics: The oversized bargaining power multinational tech companies have that not only has the potential to influence decisions made by State actors but also to subtly alter the role of everyday people from citizens to consumers, and how data centres present in Ireland harbouring foreign intelligence data add a new digital dimension to Ireland’s controversial role in facilitating U.S. military activity. Both these topics are also explored in the documentary to hopefully, in the absence of politicians and State actors who appreciate the full breadth of these centres’ impact, start a much-needed conversation about where data centres take us and how we want that journey to go.

Not Here, Not Anywhere are a nationwide, grassroots, non-partisan group campaigning to end fossil fuel exploration and the development of new fossil fuel infrastructure in Ireland. We advocate for a just transition to renewable energy systems both here and around the world.

This documentary is presented by Jessie Dolliver and Philip Punch.

You can now listen back here: https://www.mixcloud.com/DublinDigitalRadio/irish-data-centres-an-introduction-by-not-here-not-anywhere/