'For some councils, nearly a fifth of their budget is tied to theses data centres' - Gilmartin

A Leitrim councillor has commented on recent figures that show councils receives an estimated €62.5m each year from data centre operators as part of their collection of commercial rates. The figures were revealed by The Journal Investigates this week. 

Cllr James Gilmartin told the Leitrim Observer: "I'd be very concerned over it for two reasons. The first one is the economic connection to it; I know they are just estimates but you can see where that for some councils, nearly a fifth of their budget is tied to theses data centres so that would straight away trigger alarm bells because it's a volatile industry. Tech is always improving and they can up and go at any stage and the budget is linked directly to a data centre."

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Cllr Gilmartin continued: "Then you have competition between different county councils; you do need a very good quality electrical infrastructure to have these so not every place would be suited to them but you would see people competing for them. You then get corporate capture and they are playing one against the other; I'd have a huge concern over the economic connection. I think beware of the low hanging fruit; there is no such thing as a free lunch."

He went on to say that his other concerns revolved around the environmental aspect of the data centres. "On the grander scale, there is the environmental connection; I'd have huge concerns over that. Most of these data centres are powered by fossil fuels and there is a huge proliferation in terms of fossil fuel extraction in the last few years even though you would think that with having to meet climate targets, we would be going the other way. The AI revolution is an extractive industry and people aren't really aware of it. If we were genuine about meeting climate targets, we should be putting a cap on these data centres and any money that comes in from them should be spread out between all the county councils or put into a central fund because it reduces that competition between county councils."

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Cllr Gilmartin said that with the emergence of AI, "there is a digital race but these things require energy to run and you are talking huge numbers; 25 per cent and growing of the Irish electrical demand is directly related to data centres."

He said that the price of electricity is being driven up "the whole time and it's directly related to this because if there are power outages, data centres will be looked after first."

Referring to LNG fracking, which is the process of exporting Liquefied Natural Gas (LNG) derived from hydraulic fracturing (fracking) in the United States to other countries, including Ireland, which has a ban on onshore fracking but no legal ban on importing fracked gas, Cllr Gilmartin said: "They are talking about bringing in a third source of gas to Ireland which would be fracked gas from the states and that should have serious concerns for us here in Leitrim because if it does get permission, the whole argument around the Lough Allen Basin opens up again."

He concluded that the data centres are "all about demand for digital growth but the amount of energy it requires is absolutely staggering and it affects people day to day in their pockets and also affects people environmentally; it'll affect people down the line; our children and grandchildren and great grandchildren in relation to all the climate change that will come from our constant reliance on fossil fuels."

Cllr Gilmartin said that government policy needs to tackle these issues. "We need to have conversations about this digital growth; this demand for AI; it is not for free. There is a huge cost associated both economically in our pockets and environmentally. Government policy had for a while stalled on the deliverance of data centres but it's actually changed now and starting to ramp up again. That gift won't be there forever to give and that's the problem. I think what's needed is a redistribution of funds into a central pot to reduce corporate capture in particular county councils. If you have a data centre and you are getting €32m of them and the next thing they say is 'We'll now only give you €20m but we want another data centre'."