Kildare County Council has recently granted permission for the building of a €3 Billion data centre in Jigginstown, Naas.
Such a site is expected to consume three times as much electricity as the entirety of county Kildare, as well as using 18,000 litres of water every day. This is coming at a time when our energy and water networks are critically overstretched, after a summer of hosepipe bans and rising energy bills for ordinary people.
As well, residents have serious concerns over noise and air pollution. The Jigginstown site – which is about seven times as large as Croke Park – is only a few hundred metres from the nearest residential areas.
Many activists and locals have already raised the all important question “Who is benefitting from this?”
In response to this we need only look to Kildare County Council itself. Herbata Ltd, is the company applying to operate this centre. Their director and controlling shareholder, Gerry Prendergast, sat as an unelected advisor for the K.C.C. committee which rezoned the Jigginstown site to allow its use for the building of data centres.
Taoiseach Micheál Martin was quick to jump to the defense of K.C.C., saying “AI is here to stay” By this he means that profiteering from AI is here to stay and his government will continue to support these parasites at the expense of Irish workers.
No more profiteering by fat cats in silicon valley, and their lackeys on this island! No to a data centre in Jigginstown!
