Has the data centre at Naas, Jigginstown been granted planning permission?
Kildare County Council decided to grant permission on 20 August 2025 for six data centre buildings at Halverstown, Jigginstown and Newhall, Naas (reference 2460787, applicant Herbata Limited). That grant is under appeal to An Coimisiún Pleanála (case 323677, lodged 16 September 2025) by the applicant, against the conditions, and by An Taisce and Friends of the Irish Environment and others. The Commission has not decided: its case page shows no decision and still lists a due date of 28 January 2026, which has passed. A separate application by the same applicant for a 110 kV substation at Halverstown (case 323929) is also undecided.
Every filing on the record
Six two-storey data centre buildings, each with a 24,756 m² data hall 19 m high, an administration block and an 18 m high plant area with gas turbines, a gas engine and battery storage. Includes district heating infrastructure, rooftop solar, a Gas Networks Ireland compound with a biomethane injection point and a new access from the R409, on 37.51 hectares. Further information was requested on 4 October 2024 and received on 26 June 2025.
Appeal against the grant. First-party appellant: Herbata Limited. Third-party appellants: Friends of the Irish Environment and others, and An Taisce. An Environmental Impact Assessment Report and a Natura Impact Statement accompany the application.
Strategic infrastructure application by Herbata Limited at Halverstown: a 110 kV GIS grid substation, undergrounding of an existing 110 kV transmission line and ancillary development. EIAR and NIS required. A separate case from the data centre appeal.
How the decision has been reported. The Irish Times reported on 8 October 2024 that the council's further-information request said the projected emissions would equal 49.35% of the commercial buildings emissions ceiling to 2030, which it called excessive for one development, and that on-site gas turbines would not serve the decarbonisation of the energy system. On 21 August 2025 it reported the grant as subject to 77 conditions, many of them governing energy use. Investment was reported as €1bn in 2024 and €3bn in 2025; neither is a figure on the planning register.
The legal argument. The environmental appellants argue the scheme is not supported by the Government's Climate Action Plans and that the mitigation proposed, such as corporate power purchase agreements and hydrogen, is not part of national policy. ClientEarth has made an observation to the Commission; its calculation, which is its own and not the applicant's, is continuous demand of about 240 MW and about 950,000 tonnes of CO₂ equivalent a year. The applicant's own figures are in the Environmental Impact Assessment Report on the case file.
Zoning and permission are different questions. The Naas Local Area Plan 2021 to 2027 zones lands at Jigginstown and Maudlins for data centre use only, and Kildare councillors rejected two motions to reverse that on 29 September 2026, by 22 votes to 11 with 7 abstentions. Zoning makes the use acceptable in principle; it is not a permission. As a general rule, a council grant cannot be acted on while an appeal is undecided.
For the rules that apply to data centres, the national figures and both sides of the argument, including the Maynooth University working paper, read the brief: Data centres in Ireland: the rules, the numbers and the Naas application under appeal.
What to watch next
- The Commission's decision on 323677, and whether the case page shows a revised due date, an inspector's report or an oral hearing.
- The Commission's decision on the substation case 323929, whose due date of 11 June 2026 has also passed.
- Any application on the other data centre zoned lands at Jigginstown and Maudlins: none is on our register.
- A building-control commencement notice against 2460787, which would be the statutory signal that work is going to site.
Core documents
The primary sources behind this tracker - reports, orders and official records, linked directly for researchers.
- An Coimisiún Pleanála case 323677 (the appeal)
- An Coimisiún Pleanála case 323929 (the substation)
- Kildare County Council planning register, ref 2460787
- Irish Times: council says planned data centre runs counter to national policy (8 Oct 2024)
- Irish Times: planners back €3bn Herbata data centre (21 Aug 2025)
- ClientEarth: lawyers intervene on Irish data centre (14 Oct 2025)
- Irish Times: councillors reject data centre zoning motions (29 Sep 2026)
Method: compiled from the public planning register as ingested by PlanningLeads; updated 29 September 2026. Registers move as cases progress - always check the live record before relying on a status. Organisation campuses only; no personal data is reported.