Apple pulls plug on £750m Ireland datacentre

Vendor 'forced to make other plans' after facilities development gets bogged down in legal proceedings

Apple has scrapped plans to build a €850m (£743m) datacentre in Ireland after the project became entangled in court proceedings.

The facility was supported by the Irish government but was met with objections from two locals in Athenry, where it was set to be built, which slowed down development plans, according to Reuters.

Ireland's High Court approved the datacentre plans in October, but the two residents then took the matter to the Supreme Court.

Apple confirmed its decision to back out in court today.

In a statement, published by Reuters, Apple said: "Despite our best efforts, delays in the approval process have forced us to make other plans and we will not be able to move forward with the datacentre.

"While disappointing, this setback will not dampen our enthusiasm for future projects in Ireland as our business continues to grow."

The Irish government is in the process of changing planning laws around datacentres to make them pass through the planning process more quickly.

Google recently expanded its datacentre presence in Ireland with a €150m expansion of a facility in Dublin.

Ireland's business minister Heather Humphreys expressed her disappointment following Apple's decision in a statement, saying: "The Government did everything it could to support this investment.

"These delays have, if nothing else, underlined our need to make the state's planning and legal processes more efficient."