The Commercial Court with jurisdiction over County Galway in western
Ireland recently dismissed two cases, clearing the way for Apple to take the
next steps in developing a group of data centres planned for the county. Apple
will spend upwards of €850 million (£762 million) to build the
8-facility campus.
New reports say that two law suits were brought against the project
after the local Board gave its permission back in August. Commercial Court
justice Paul McDermott rejected the lawsuits on different grounds. Apple may
now proceed, though there is still no guarantee that the data centres will be
built. Other hurdles will have to be cleared.
Local Objections
The first lawsuit to challenge Apple's plan was brought by a local
couple whose home is located near the proposed site. They claimed that Apple
failed to carry out a proper environmental impact assessment, making the
original Board decision invalid. Justice McDermott disagreed.
The second case was brought by another local resident who believed that
proper planning procedures were not being followed. The plaintiff claimed to
not be opposed to Apple's plans per se, he was just convinced that there were
some planning procedure issues. Apple maintained that the plaintiff had made no
submissions to the Galway County Council in opposition to the project, nor had
he appealed to the local Board. The Commercial Court sided with Apple.
Big Plans by Apple
Since the project was first proposed, Apple has had big plans for
Galway. They have maintained all along that building the new data centres will
add hundreds of jobs to the local area while also helping to meet the growing
demand for data processing and storage in Ireland.
Apple has not detailed exactly what they plan to do with the data
centre, but it is not beyond the realms of possibility to assume it could be a
very important data processing hub for the British Isles, if not most of
Western Europe. Some news reports have speculated that Apple wants to use the
new facilities to power everything from the iTunes Store to iMessage throughout
Europe.
Irish Minister for community development Seán Kyne greeted the
Commercial Court ruling with delight, calling it "very positive news for
Galway and the West of Ireland." He and some 4,000 local members of an
Apple Facebook page are encouraged by the ruling, especially given that the
project has been delayed numerous times over the past two years.
It is understandable that there are objections whenever a data centre
of this size is proposed. However, the courts have to be very careful about
ruling based on public opinion. The digital world is expanding exponentially
with every passing quarter and we are going to need a lot more data centres in
the very near future to keep up with demand. Unless the world is ready to go
back to the pre-digital era, both consumers and courts have to be willing to
allow data centres to be built.
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