How many data centres are planned in Ireland? What the planning register shows

How many data centres are in the planning register, and at what stage?

The count is of planning applications, not of buildings or campuses. Each is a planning application lodged with a council where the description reads as a data centre, whether a new campus, a new hall on an existing site, or a change to a permission already granted.

The split by stage below uses the council's recorded decision status. A commencement notice is the statutory sign that building is starting, and the register links it back to the permission it belongs to.

Where are they, and how much is strategic infrastructure?

The register holds applications in 8 planning authority areas. The three largest are Fingal 16, South Dublin 13, Meath 3, together 32 applications or 80% of the total.

Strategic infrastructure is a narrow route. Under section 37A of the Planning and Development Act 2000 an application for development listed in the Seventh Schedule goes to An Coimisiún Pleanála, after pre-application consultation under section 37B, instead of to the council. The Seventh Schedule has a class for facilities of more than 10,000 square metres used primarily for the storage, management and dissemination of data, but the revised text on the Law Reform Commission site records that class as inserted by the Planning and Development (Amendment) Act 2018 and not commenced as of its date of revision. Check the current commencement position before relying on it. Until it applies, a data centre is ordinarily applied for to the council, with any appeal going to An Coimisiún Pleanála. Of 339 strategic infrastructure cases we hold, 1 carry a data centre tag, and a data centre campus can still reach the Commission through the substation or line that serves it.

The grid classification we run over substation and line applications finds 12 real grid works whose client reads as a data centre. That classification covers a keyword pool, so treat it as a floor.

Why planning counts understate or overstate the pipeline

A planning count is a poor proxy for megawatts or for buildings, in both directions.

• One campus often has several applications over time. 7 of the classified applications cite an earlier permission they amend, so counting applications counts the same site more than once.
• A permission can be kept alive without new building. 9 of the classified applications are extensions of the duration of a permission, which is a lifeline for a project, not a new one.
• A permission is not a connection. Whether a site can be energised depends on grid capacity and connection terms, which are decided outside planning. Speculative sites hold permissions they may never use.
• Phased permissions describe future halls in one decision, so a single application can cover capacity that will be built over years.
• The classification can miss: 19 applications mention a data centre in the description without being classed as one, and 23 are classed as a data centre without using the words. Both happen when the data centre is part of a larger scheme or is described by function.

How we count, and what the classification is

The class comes from a model reading the public development description on each application, and a separate keyword tag marks descriptions that use words such as data centre or hyperscale. 50 applications carry that keyword tag, against 36 that mention a data centre at all. This is our classification of the text, with known limits, and it is not an official register.

We count planning applications only. A commencement notice is the same job as its permission, so notices are used to mark an application as started and are not added as a second project. We do not count applicants or agents, and this page names no developer or operator. For the named public cases, see the brief linked below.

What planning data cannot tell you: the national picture

Two things shape the national pipeline more than planning does, and neither can be derived from planning data. The first is the regulator's connection policy. On 12 December 2025 the Commission for Regulation of Utilities published a final decision paper (CRU2025236) on connection policy for large energy users. It applies exclusively to data centres seeking to connect to the electricity network. It supersedes the proposed decision published on 18 February 2025, which was a proposal only.

Under that decision a data centre with a maximum import capacity of 10 MVA or more must provide dispatchable on-site or nearby generation or storage that matches its import capacity, separately connected and metered. It must also meet at least 80% of its annual demand from additional renewable electricity generated in the Republic of Ireland, with a six year glide path from energisation. The decision also requires the system operators to develop and publish a connection process for data centre applicants by 31 March 2026, and to publish locational information on network capacity.

The second is Government policy. The Government Statement on the Role of Data Centres in Ireland's Enterprise Strategy, published in July 2022, is a policy statement, not legislation. It states a preference for developments tied to strong economic activity and employment, efficient use of the grid and renewable energy delivered in Ireland, and favours regional locations aligned with the National Planning Framework. We cite the 2022 statement as published and have not relied on any later version. Neither document says how many data centres will be built, and neither can be read off the planning register.

What it means for a supplier or contractor

For a supplier, the planning count is a list of sites to watch, not a forecast. Power comes first: a site without a connection offer and a route to meet the generation requirement is a paper project, so lead times from permission to first trade on site can be long and uneven.

The trades enter in a rough order. Enabling and civil works and the grid connection substation come first, then the shell, then the mechanical and electrical fit-out that data halls need: power distribution, cooling and ventilation, and fire detection. A commencement notice is the clearest sign that the first of these is close. The trades we tag for the sector are on the trades pages, and the grid and strategic infrastructure cases are on the infrastructure page.

The planning route matters for timing. A council decision can be appealed to An Coimisiún Pleanála, and a strategic infrastructure case for the grid connection runs on its own file. Some cases carry an Environmental Impact Assessment Report, and whether one is needed is decided project by project. Each council's development plan sets its own zoning and policies for data centres, so read the plan for the county in question. The Planning and Development Act 2024 was enacted in 2024 and is being brought into effect in stages, so check which provisions apply when you rely on a process point.