Opposition mounts over potential Kildare data centre
Local campaigners in Kildare are determined to prevent potentially a second large data centre from being built in the area.
One campaigner told the that Naas residents “do not need or want” data centres in the area.
Naas has emerged as a flashpoint in the debate over data centre development.
A 38.69-hectare site next to the M7 motorway and business park at Naas was granted planning permission by the council in August 2025 for a six-building, gas-powered data centre campus, despite detailed objections from An Taisce, Friends of the Earth Ireland, Friends of the Irish Environment, Newhall Residents Group and individual local residents.
The proposal remains before An Coimisiún Pleanála following appeals by An Taisce and, in a joint appeal, Friends of the Irish Environment (FIE) and Friends of the Earth Ireland (FOTEI) against the grant of permission.
Attention is turning in Naas to a second, larger plot of land. The 54.55-hectare site carries a “data centre only” zoning under the Naas Local Area Plan 2021-2027, although no planning application has yet been lodged.
The site has been linked to a proposed Microsoft data centre project.
Sorcha O’Neill, who is a former councillor, current chairperson of the Social Democrats and now a spokesperson for residents in Esmondale who are concerned about the data centre development, is leading a campaign group calling on local councillors to rezone the second data centre site before an application is lodged.
The site backs onto the Primrose Gardens residential area. It is around seven times the area of Croke Park’s stadium footprint.
Ms O’Neill told the Kildare Nationalist that the site “is as close as 130 metres to the line of Primrose Gardens, and Castle Farm. It's far too close to residents”.
The campaign group is asking Naas Municipal District councillors to submit or support a motion at the September meeting of the municipal district, requesting that the council commence a ‘statutory variation of the Naas Local Area Plan to remove the "P - Data Centre" zoning at Jigginstown/Maudlins’.
They are also calling on the councillors to ‘publicly commit to opposing the designation of any further land for data centre use in Naas and its environs in future Local Area Plans or Development Plans, absent compelling new evidence to the contrary’.
Ms O’Neill told the Kildare Nationalist that the group she represents is not currently an official organisation, but rather a group of residents. They have put together a petition which has received almost 400 signatures, signed by residents from all the different estates affected, in an attempt to remove the zoning for the second site.
She is of the view that, besides the proximity to residents, there are several other issues with the site.
The smaller Herbata site is set to have six gas turbines, and with the second site being larger, she is concerned that it will have even more gas turbines. She is concerned about the noise problems, citing the example of Clondalkin:
“Especially in the summer months, you're going have that constant humming noise as there, back-up generators that are going. We only have to look at Clondalkin and the two sites there, and the amount of people complaining to the EPA, but what's that going to do? They’re up and running. They need to have them. So, my thing is, is that it shouldn't have been zoned where it was.” Residents in Clondalkin have recently raised concerns regarding noise emitted from the Echelon Data Centre, while reports of black smoke emissions from the facility have also attracted attention.
Water and energy usage is also a concern for Ms O’Neill.
She points out that data centres are water intensive, and Kildare residents are currently under a hosepipe ban.
She says that Ireland ranks highest in Europe for energy use from data centres, with the facilities now accounting for 23 per cent of Ireland’s metered electricity.
She is also concerned about the number of jobs created.
“There'll be jobs in construction, but those jobs could be used for building homes, which we absolutely do need. Whereas, when they're actually built, the jobs factor is actually much more minuscule compared to what the initial construction phase is.” Clyde Doyle, a spokesperson for the group Data Centre Awareness Kildare, also believes that the economic benefits and jobs claims are “completely overblown” by companies such as Herbata.
He claimed that Herbata are including 2,000 ‘induced’ jobs, which include people serving coffee and driving taxis in proximity of the site.
Ms O’Neill has also not given up hope with regards to the Herbata site.
“An Taisce and Friends of the Earth have appealed that decision. We don't know what's going to come of that. It could be granted; it could be granted with conditions. We don't know what the outcome is there. They would also have to apply for an EPA licence for the noise and emissions that they do. So, you know, we could object to that, too, so we could slow them down. Yeah. Like they have done in Ennis, they've taken them to the High Court in Ennis.” Ms O’Neill makes it clear that she is not completely against data centres, but that in her view Ireland, and the region around Kildare in particular, has enough already.
“It affects everyone in the area, affects people in Caragh, it affects people in, you know, Celbridge, in Lucan, you know, in Wicklow, because we're all drawing from the same water. We're all paying our electricity bills. Yeah.
“So, every time a data centre gets added in Ireland, I'm not saying wipe out data centres, by the way, but we have them here, there’s nothing we can do about them now, they do perform some good functionalities, but they also perform some bad functions.” As regards what those “bad functions” are, Ms Doyle points to concerns about Microsoft’s wider activities internationally. She cites recent reports relating to the company’s cloud services.
Last year, the Irish Council for Civil Liberties (ICCL) asked the Data Protection Commission to investigate Microsoft over allegations that its Azure cloud service was used by the Israeli military to store Palestinian phone call data.
Microsoft’s European headquarters are located in Leopardstown and the company operates a large data centre in Clondalkin.
Mr Doyle shares Ms O’Neill’s concerns about the potential Microsoft site, as it is significantly larger.
He believes that Herbata are pretty confident that they will get the go-ahead, and he hopes that local groups can have more of a “material impact” on the second site.
Mr Doyle explains that many locals only became aware of the Herbata development when media began to report on it last year.
Mr Doyle makes a comparison between the Herbata project in Naas and Elon Musk’s controversial xAI data centres in Mississippi and Tennessee.
Mr Doyle points to reports that xAI had continued operating gas turbines at its facilities despite regulatory scrutiny and environmental controversy in the United States. xAI was found to be defying EPA regulations in Mississippi to power its flagship data centre.
The Herbata project will also use natural gas turbines and Mr Doyle claims that the Herbata site will be larger than Colossus One, which Musk launched in 2024 to train the AI language model Grok.
He points out that according to the applications, the Herbata project could use up to 240 megawatts.
Mr Doyle said there is a lack of awareness locally about the issue but that, once people know about it, “they’re very much against it, they’re very much agitated and concerned”.
His message to local councillors is to “listen to their constituents” with regards to what they need and want, saying that Naas residents “do not need or want this”.
He said that his group plans on organising a public meeting where public representatives will be invited to make clear their position.
Local councillor Bill Clear said he intends to bring a motion at an upcoming Naas Municipal District meeting seeking to rezone the Microsoft site. However, he expressed doubts that a municipal district motion would be capable of reversing the zoning.
"I will do it, but it will not work," he said, describing the planning process as complex and saying he had sought advice from three separate sources, including a legal planner, a planner and a private planning consultant.
According to cllr Clear, the proposed change would have to go through the appropriate statutory planning process and could ultimately require action at county level.
He said campaigners had been given information suggesting that a motion at municipal district level could remove the zoning but argued that the situation was more complicated because of how the original zoning was approved.
The land was zoned for data centre development under Kildare's 2021 Local Area Plan. However, because the wider area involved crosses into Kildare-Newbridge Municipal District, cllr Clear said the original zoning decision required consideration by the full county council rather than only councillors representing the immediate Naas area.
Campaigners are now seeking a reversal of that zoning, which will require councillors from both municipal districts to consider the issue.
Cllr Clear said he was "on the fence" about data centres generally, acknowledging their potential benefits while questioning the scale of their expansion.
He said data centres could have clear applications in areas such as medicine and other essential services but questioned whether all of the demand being generated was equally valuable.
"I do think that we've got an over proliferation of them," he said.
The Microsoft proposal has also prompted questions locally about its potential proximity to residential areas and possible noise impacts.
Cllr Clear said he planned to visit an existing data centre to see its operation and noise levels for himself and intended to invite some of those who have raised concerns to accompany him.
The next significant development is expected to be the motion seeking to revisit the site's zoning at the Naas Municipal District meeting in September.
