Waterford council refuses Kilmeaden data centre permission

Waterford City and County Council refused planning permission on 15 October for the Kilmeaden data centre and energy development. The application from Crag Rathnew DC Limited and Kent Homes Limited covered the former Kilmeaden cheese factory site and adjoining lands, RTE reported.

The planning application stated the project would provide a mixed-use village centre, technology park and renewable energy development on 108.79 hectares. It proposed three ICT buildings each around 24,000 sq m, an energy centre with 16 gas-powered turbines, a solar farm with more than 43,000 panels and a battery energy storage system. The wider plan included 48 apartments, a two-storey supermarket with an off-licence, a childcare facility, a community centre, a gym, a cafe, a health centre and a pharmacy.

The Irish Examiner reported that major data centre developer Echelon was also behind the project. The developers said their facilities are designed and developed in line with regulatory guidelines and in consultation with community representatives, RTE reported.

The application

The Irish Examiner reported that the application was first submitted in September 2025. Waterford Live reported more than 500 submissions, the vast majority opposed. The village has approximately 300 residents, the Irish Examiner reported.

Sinn Féin TD Conor McGuinness said the development would have had an average electricity demand of approximately 203 megawatts. He said it was not a minor development and argued that projects of that scale must be assessed on their full environmental and infrastructure impacts, Waterford Live reported.

McGuinness and party colleague David Cullinane welcomed the refusal, as did councillors John O'Leary, Catherine Burke and Declan Clune, Waterford News reported. Both TDs had opposed the project, Waterford Live reported. Cullinane said Ireland needs a coherent approach to data centres that takes account of electricity demand, grid capacity, climate obligations and the impact on local communities.

The campaign

RTE reported on 10 October that over 300 people took part in a slow drive protest through Kilmeaden. Cars, tractors and vans set off from Ballyduff National School. Waterford News put a similar drive-slow protest on Sunday 11 October at around 300 people.

Amanda Power, a committee member of the Kilmeaden Against Industrialisation group, told RTE that if the development were built "there's no going back". Danny Brennan, who has lived on the border of the site for over 50 years, said the data centres would sit at the bottom of his garden and that the house would be worth nothing.

Friends of the Earth Ireland says data centres now use 23% of all electricity in Ireland, a share it calls unprecedented globally. The group says the proliferation of data centres is increasing energy bills and locking Ireland into a new generation of fossil fuels, the Munster Express reported.

The Munster Express also reported that, by the developers' own calculations, the planned solar farm would have covered only 2% of the data centres' energy needs.

What happens next

Waterford Live reported that the Notification of Decision letter had not been uploaded to the council website, leaving the official reasons for the refusal unknown. That leaves the grounds for any appeal unclear.

Power told the Munster Express that the refusal could still be appealed and that the campaign was not over. She called for a national moratorium on new data centres until rules are put in place on where they can be built, how many are needed and whether infrastructure can support them.

The Munster Express reported that Waterford residents will join a Dublin demonstration on Saturday 7 November, starting at noon from the Garden of Remembrance. It said the event is part of a European day of action on data centres, organised by Friends of the Earth Ireland with community groups, with more than 85 groups from ten countries taking part.