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Ireland's political and cultural magazine
July 2016 1 3
A
controversial proposal to de-zone
lands for a data centre in county
Wicklow has been defeated by local
councillors. The successful motion
to retain the zoning was proposed
by Councillor Pat Vance.
According to the council chief executive and
the Department of the Environment the zoning
of the lands at Newtownmountkennedy, was
“piecemeal and random.”
However, a proposal to de-zone the lands was
roundly rejected by councillors at a meeting on
Monday 4th July in the latest twist in a story
which has even seen unsubstantiated allega-
tions of malfeasance directed at members and
officials of the council and other state agencies
over recent years.
As reported in Village, the manner in which
the attempts by businessman, Brian McDon-
agh, to develop a data centre on the
Newtownmountkennedy lands have been
obstructed are nothing short of extraordinary.
McDonagh and his brothers first obtained
permission to build a data centre on the 81-acre
site on the edge of the N11 at Kilpedder, New-
town in July 2010, but fell victim to unwelcome
manoeuvres by members and officials of Wick-
low County Council, An Bord Pleanála and the
National Roads Authority when they sought to
proceed with the development.
When they first applied for permission to
develop a business park on the site in 2008 it
was zoned for business, science and technol-
ogy but within months their lands were
de-zoned to agricultural use while lands imme-
diately on the other side of the N11 were zoned
for industrial use under a new Local Area Plan.
When they threatened the council with legal
action over the de-zoning the McDonaghs were
invited to a meeting in the Ramada Hotel in
Wicklow by then chairman of the council plan-
ning committee, Pat Vance, where it was
suggested that a proposal for a data centre on
their lands would be considered favourably.
In July 2010, the council granted permission
to their new company, Ecologic Data Centre
(EDC) to build a data centre but this was met
with an appeal against planning by the National
Roads Authority (NRA). After some bitter
exchanges, the NRA withdrew its objection but
not before serious financial costs had been
incurred by the McDonaghs.
In the Spring of 2011, An Bord Pleanála
upheld an objection to the proposal from a local
landowner but this was subsequently over-
turned when the McDonaghs proved in the High
Court that the board had not acted fairly or
properly in the appeal process. In a landmark
decision, the Supreme Court upheld the deci-
sion following an unsuccessful appeal by ABP
the following year.
Since then Brian McDonagh has been forced
from control of the company due to the accumu-
lating financial difficulties caused by the
incessant delays to the project. He is advising
new owners on an energy recovery and data
centre project. Meanwhile, other data centres
have been sprouting up around the country in
places that do not compare in terms of road,
traffic, power and fibre optic access with the
Newtown site.
His experience including the bizarre manner
in which his site was first zoned, then de-zoned
and re-zoned again is the subject of one of the
series of complaints concerning the administra-
tion of local government in county Wicklow that
were sent to former environment minister, Alan
Kelly and are still under consideration by his
successor, Simon Coveney.
Others include the manner in which various
lands were acquired under compulsory pur-
chase orders and others zoned at Charlesland,
county Wicklow to the benefit of developers
Sean Mulryan and Sean Dunne and their joint
venture Zapi Ltd. The role played by Councillor
Vance, who met privately with the two develop-
ers in advance of crucial planning decisions for
the major residential scheme near Greystones
in 2002 and 2003 are the subject of other com-
plaints by local auctioneer, Gabriel Dooley.
Last month, Vance was cleared of any wrong-
doing after a lengthy investigation by the
council ethics registrar into a complaint by
Dooley that the councillor had failed to mention
a house he acquired at Saran Wood in Bray in
January 2003.
The ethics registrar determined that Vance
and his wife Mary had merely guaranteed a
mortgage taken out with AIB. She accepted that
the purchaser of the property was their son,
Peter Vance, who is an employee of the bank.
In her report the registrar, Helen Purcell, said
she was unable to obtain the original mortgage
for the property at 15 Saran Wood during her
year-long investigation but accepted the verac-
ity of other conveyancing documents describing
Peter Vance as the purchaser. He sold the prop-
erty in his sole name to a third party in
September 2015.
Wicklodium
Litigation and allegations of wrongdoing
dog the garden county as a motion to
downzone Newtownmountkennedy
data-centre lands is defeated
by Frank Connolly
An Bord Pleanála upheld an
objection to the proposal
but this was overturned
when the McDonaghs
proved in the High Court
that the board had not
acted fairly or properly
Site for data centre, Newtownmountkennedy
