The data centre dilemma — should Ireland pull plug on tech boom?

On the outskirts of west Dublin, Grange Castle seems like any other industrial estate. Wide roads, a steady drift of building lorries, faceless warehouses. Here, big industry names hail big investments.

Just opposite the entrance is Pfizer’s manufacturing plant, due for a €1 billion expansion and several hundred new jobs. Aryzta, the bakery giant, sprawls over 45,500 sq m churning out sourdough and baguettes. Down the road, Grifols, the Spanish pharmaceutical group, is turning blood plasma into medicine.

Yet across Grange Castle and nearby Profile Park, a different sector dominates. A dozen data centres, housing companies from Google to Amazon and Microsoft, sit behind high fences. Several are already working, many are being built, some are waiting to be plugged in.

The debate around