Apple (NASDAQ: AAPL) has announced plans to scrap the €850 million (£743 million) data centre in West Ireland.
The tech giant made plans for the new European data centre back in February 2015 but following three years of planning approval delays, the project will be scrapped.
“Despite our best efforts, delays in the approval process have forced us to make other plans and we will not be able to move forward with the data centre,” said Apple in a statement on Thursday.
“While disappointing, this setback will not dampen our enthusiasm for future projects in Ireland as our business continues to grow,” added Apple, referring to the plans to expand the European headquarters in County Cork, employing over 6,000 people.
Heather Humphreys, Ireland’s minister for business and enterprise expressed disappointment in the decision.
“There is no disputing that Apple’s decision is very disappointing, particularly for Athenry and the west of Ireland,” she said.
“These delays have, if nothing else, underlined our need to make the state’s planning and legal processes more efficient. The Government has therefore already been working, over the last number of months, to make improvements to those processes. This will ensure we are better placed to take advantage of future such investment opportunities, whether from data centre providers or other sectors,” she added.
When plans were put on hold in 2016, it attracted 2,000 people to gather and march in support of the new Apple centre in Athenry, Ireland.
The new data centre would have created approximately 300 construction jobs as well as 150 permanent jobs in the country.
When announcing the plans for the data centre in 2015, the company also announced plans for a data centre in Denmark, which opened last year.
