Protest hears calls for moratorium on new data centres

Around two thousand people have protested in Dublin city centre against data centres.

Protesters called for a moratorium on any new data centres because of environmental and climate concerns.

Groups from counties Kildare, Louth, Waterford, Wicklow and Clare were among those marching from Parnell Square to Leinster House.

They said data centres add to carbon emissions, and that they also have concerns about water and noise pollution.

The protest was also addressed by Jeremy Auerbach of the Climate Justice Universities Union, who said that while AI is driving data centre expansion and higher education institutions are enabling this, AI is not designed for education.

He said it was designed for profit, and is being used to destroy jobs and make social media more addictive.

Data centres, the protest groups say, are part of the reason for high electricity prices here, adding that conditions that require new data centres to source 80% of their electricity from renewable energy sources do not go far enough.

The demonstrators want a moratorium on all new data centres until their full impact can be properly assessed.

They also reject the economic arguments for data centres, saying that Ireland already has more than 100 data centres and they do not create many jobs.

In June, the Government published a report that it commissioned, at a cost of €100,000, in support of data centres.

It claimed that since 2010, €22 billion has been added to the Irish economy, an additional 17,000 jobs have been created and €2.8 billion in tax has been collected because of data centres.

Minister for Enterprise Peter Burke said data centre expansion is a "strategic opportunity for the Irish economy".