New York has temporarily stopped building data centres. Should Ireland do the same?

In July, governor Kathy Hochul placed a one-year construction ban for data centres using 50 megawatts or more. She is also reportedly pursuing new legislation to repeal sales tax exemptions for large data centres. Other countries, including Denmark and Australia, are considering legislation to regulate data centres. Related Reads How Big Tech wrote secrecy into EU law to hide data centres’ environmental tollSpeaking at a conference, Darragh O’Brien said data centres are “central to Ireland’s economic and digital future as they are a key part of our foreign direct investment (FDI) and the associated employment”. So we are in a situation where growth from data centres is outstripping new renewables that are coming on stream.”