When it is not a whistle, it is a flute. The data center that Apple intends to build in Ireland is giving it more trouble than the Cupertino-based company might think. Apple wants to build a data center, which will cost the company 850 million euros outside Athenry, in County Galway, on the west coast of Ireland, but local residents and businesses are not on board with the company's plans. After many comings and goings, Apple got the green light after the Bord Pleanala meeting last August.
However, local residents Allay Daly and Sinéad Fitzpatrick have taken the case to the Supreme Court threatening to derail Apple's plans once again, as The Iris Times reports. This will delay Apple's plans of at least 18 months. According to the newspaper, Apple sees the future of these facilities in danger and may backtrack and decide to build this data center elsewhere, outside of Ireland.
This new data center will service the iTunes Store, App Store, iMessage, Maps and Siri in Europe according to the press release made by Apple when it announced its intention to create this data center, a data center that will use renewable energy.
Of the 18.300 employees Apple has worldwide, in Ireland there are more than a third, 5.500, in addition to being Apple's base in Europe If this project is not finally carried out, Apple will not be able to comply with the hiring plans that it made a few months ago to the Irish government, in which it assured that in the coming years it would hire more than 1.000 new people. Google, Microsoft and Amazon already have data centers in Ireland and Facebook will soon do so.
