Why Ireland needs more data centres, not fewer

Earlier this week South Dublin County Council refused Google Ireland planning permission for a new data centre at Grange Castle Business Park in south Dublin.
In his column this weekend, economist David McWilliams argues that recent moves by Ireland to limit data centres in Ireland – mainly due to concerns over the huge amounts of electricity they require – is shortsighted.
“If people want to save enormous amounts of data from videos, photos, memes and the like, we will need more data centres. More photos, more storage, more capacity, more data centres.
“Simply put, we can’t live in a digital age without data centres. If you believe that we are not going back to analogue, and the digital age is both the present and the future, then the requirement for data centres will expand as exponentially as the desire to save photos on your phone,” he writes.
It has slipped from the news bulletins in recent months but the flow of immigrants trying to cross the Mediterranean Sea to reach Europe is unchecked. Sally Hayen, in an extensive report today, speaks to some of those making the crossing, despite its dangers – more than 30,000 people have died or gone missing on the Mediterranean Sea over the last decade.
She spoke to some of the men – many from Bangladesh – rescued from a two boats by medical charity Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) on the same day.
Through these interviews Hayden traced their earlier journeys. Some only left Bangladesh this summer, but others had been travelling for years. The interviewees’ accounts of being held for ransom and exploited also bore similarities with previous accounts The Irish Times has been hearing since 2019.
Reza (37) said he travelled to Libya to make money after the expense of his wedding ceremony. “He worked as a painter until he was kidnapped at gunpoint in the street and held for ransom.”
The footballing gods must have a sense of humour. Of all the places in the world where interim England football manager Lee Carsley’s first match could be held, it had to be in Dublin, against Ireland.
Carsley was very much in the frame as a possible candidate to replace Stephen Kenny at the start of the process and met the FAI recruiters but ultimately decided to stay within the England set-up.
Gavin Cummiskey profiles the former Republic of Ireland midfielder whose highly-regarded coaching acumen has seen him appointed to one of the most high-profile roles in world football.
As Graham Norton prepares to publish his fifth novel he reflects on fame and growing up in west Cork and also shares a story about a time when his mother was very ill in hospital in London.
Norton was distraught, but there was a television show he was due to present that evening and he decided to go through with it. Backstage, one of the guests, the comedian Barry Humphries, took Norton by the shoulders and said: “You are very lucky: you have been given a task.”
“And he was right,” Norton says. When he returned to the intensive care unit of the hospital, his mother was feeling better and so was Graham Norton. “It meant that I wasn’t sitting in a car park, sobbing. It’s much easier to be busy.”
Finally, whichever parties form the next Government – and the high numbers of TDs opting not to run again means the new Dáil will look very different – one significant challenge the new administration will face is how to cope with the demands of a rapidly rising and ageing population.
Key services from education, to health, housing and transport are struggling under the strain of increasing demand as immigration boosts the population and people are living longer. Martin Wall examines the challenges and the options.
READ MORE