This page is adapted from a constituent letter drafted for this campaign (Nov 2025) and from separately researched planning-law background. Where a specific claim is independently sourced, we've cited it; where it reflects the campaign's own planning argument rather than a cited external fact, we've said that too.
The request
- Submit or support a motion at the September 2026 meeting of Naas Municipal District requesting that Kildare County Council commence a statutory variation (material alteration) of the Naas Local Area Plan to remove the existing "P - Data Centre" zoning at Jigginstown/Maudlins.
- Publicly commit to opposing the designation of any further land for data centre use within Naas and its environs in future Local Area Plans or Development Plans, absent compelling new evidence to the contrary.
Is a mid-cycle variation actually possible?
Yes. Under both the Planning and Development Act 2000 and the 2024 Act, a planning authority can vary a Development Plan (and, by extension, an Area Plan) outside the normal review cycle, provided it follows the statutory process: public consultation, environmental screening (and where relevant SEA/AA), a Chief Executive's report, and a vote of elected members.
There's precedent for this - councils have varied plans mid-cycle to zone additional residential land for housing targets, facilitate strategic employment lands, accommodate major transport projects, and respond to new national policy. It is not routine, and councillors are rightly cautious about ad hoc rezoning - but it is a recognised and used mechanism where there's a clear planning justification. See our FAQ entry on precedent for more detail.
1. Material change in circumstances since the 2021 Local Area Plan
The Naas LAP was prepared in 2020 and adopted in 2021 - before several national policy and infrastructure shifts that bear directly on the suitability of this zoning:
- National electricity demand from data centres has increased substantially, now standing at 23% of total metered electricity in 2025, up from 5% in 2015 (CSO, "Data Centres Metered Electricity Consumption 2025," 7 Jul 2026).
- The Commission for Regulation of Utilities has tightened its connection policy for data centres, citing security-of-supply concerns, and EirGrid has flagged capacity constraints on the national network (widely reported; we have not yet linked this to a specific CRU/EirGrid publication).
- Ireland's carbon budgets are legally binding, and case law on how that duty applies to individual planning decisions has developed substantially since 2021 - see The Climate Act, Explained.
- The national conversation on the appropriate scale and location of data centre development has shifted, including proposed "Private Wires" legislation before the Oireachtas (per Friends of the Earth Ireland campaign materials).
These are genuine changes in planning circumstances, not simply a change in political opinion - which is the threshold that matters for a variation.
2. Electricity network constraints
Large-scale data centres are among the most electricity-intensive forms of development available. Where strategic, serviced employment land exists, it's reasonable to ask whether it should continue to be reserved exclusively for a use with exceptionally high electricity requirements, at a time when that infrastructure is already under acknowledged pressure.
3. Water supply resilience
Residents across North Kildare and the Greater Dublin Area have experienced recurring water supply concerns, including outages and hosepipe bans. While any individual application would require its own water demand assessment, these events demonstrate that water resources are already constrained during dry periods - a trend climate projections suggest will worsen. Reserving further land for large water-consuming development merits reconsideration on that basis alone.
Source: An Taisce, "Data Centres and Water Use" speaking notes, p.2 (Uisce Éireann, April 2024).
4. Climate obligations
Ireland's carbon budgets are legally binding. Data centre gas connections and backup generation directly increase emissions and drive the need for costly grid upgrades - costs ultimately borne by taxpayers and electricity consumers, including through EU penalties for missed targets. When the State doesn't meet its legally binding EU climate targets, it isn't the sectors causing the shortfall that pay for it - it's the taxpayer: Ireland's own Fiscal Advisory Council and Climate Change Advisory Council estimate the compliance cost of missing our 2030 targets at €8-26 billion under current policy, falling to €3-12 billion if the Climate Action Plan's own measures are fully delivered. It's reasonable for elected members to weigh whether further concentrating large electricity users in Naas aligns with the county's climate and sustainability objectives.
Sources: recent court rulings and legislation have narrowed how much weight climate-law obligations (Section 15 of the Climate Act) carry in individual planning decisions - see The Climate Act, Explained. This is part of why a Local Area Plan variation, decided by elected members rather than litigated case by case, is the more durable route. Compliance cost estimate: Irish Fiscal Advisory Council & Climate Change Advisory Council, "A Colossal Missed Opportunity" (Mar 2025); reported in The Irish Times, 4 Mar 2025, TheJournal.ie, 6 Apr 2025, and an Irish Times Content Studio special report, 24 Apr 2025.
5. Strategic use of employment land
The "P - Data Centre" zoning reserves strategic serviced land for one narrow use. Removing it would not prevent the Council from planning positively for employment - it would allow consideration of a broader range of uses (advanced manufacturing, engineering, research, life sciences and other enterprises) that may deliver more sustainable long-term employment with different infrastructure demands.
6. Local environmental impacts
Even with mitigation, developments of this scale bring continuous operational noise, 24-hour external lighting, visual impact from large industrial structures, and potential disturbance to nearby residential communities and agricultural enterprises including horse studs and livestock farms - impacts that should be weighed against the strategic planning objectives for this specific site.
7. Planning flexibility, not planning refusal
This is a request for flexibility, not a blanket objection to development on this land. Removing the dedicated zoning allows future planning decisions to respond to changing national priorities and infrastructure capacity, rather than locking this land into a single, increasingly contested use for the remaining life of the plan.