No new data centre investment for Ireland until wind strategy sorted, says Amazon

Speaking at an event to mark Amazon’s 20th anniversary in Ireland today, Amazon Web Services’ [AWS] country lead for Ireland, Neil Morris. said that the company had announced more than €30bn of investment in other European locations, including Spain, Germany, France and most recently, in the UK.

“The next wave of data centre infrastructure investment is happening all around us,” he said.

“We want to continue growing and expanding here, if conditions allow. We in AWS hope that opportunities for Irish cloud infrastructure firms will not just be limited to overseas this year. I’m on record as to what we as a nation need to deliver. If we get the delivery of offshore wind right and a correct energy policy framework in place, then Ireland will be well positioned to win substantial investment from multinationals like Amazon.”

Speaking at the same event, Dublin’s Lord Mayor, James Geoghegan, launched an attack on planning refusals for data centres in Ireland.

“Planning authorities in this city are refusing applications for new data centres, citing the existing insufficient capacity in the electricity network and the lack of significant on-site renewable energy to power the data center as reasons,” he said.

“Data centres are indispensable for the AI revolution. We can’t afford a narrow worldview as to their role in delivering an infrastructure that maintains, develops and grows an economy to meet the technological advancements of the 21st century. The answer to the inevitable expansion of data centres across the globe is not for Ireland to shut its doors.”

Also speaking at the event, Enterprise Ireland CEO, Leo Clancy, said that 18,000 people in Ireland are employed by companies “for whom a large of their business is constructing data centres”.

Last week, AWS said it plans to invest £8bn (€9.47bn) in the UK over the next five years on building, operating, and maintaining data centres. Data centres in the UK are to be classified as critical national infrastructure alongside the likes of emergency services, finance and healthcare systems, and energy and water supplies, putting them in line for government support in the event of a major incident, such as a cyber attack or extreme weather.

Meanwhile, the launch of Amazon.ie next year is expected to increase demand for vans, deliveries and overall sales for the tech giant in Ireland, according to country manager for UK and Ireland, John Boumphrey.

“There will be more Irish products,” Mr Boumphrey said.

“We expect to see [sales] volume growing. grow volume. And that will result more deliveries and more growth in the country.”

Mr Boumphrey declined to say whether the switch would be in the first or second half of 2025.

He said that he was unable to say whether Amazon Prime Video accounts and other associated customer memberships would also switch from Amazon.co.uk to Amazon.ie. He said that the details around those decisions would be revealed closer to the launch date.

Mr Boumphrey declined to say whether pricing would increase once Amazon.ie is introduced, saying only that pricing will be “localised” and that Amazon hopes it will be a “better experience”.

Earlier this week, Amazon CEO Andy Jassy said that staff will be required to return to the office five days a week.

In Ireland, 39pc of Irish workers have ‘hybrid’ arrangements working at least one day per week outside the office, according to recent Linkedin survey.

Amazon employs 6,500 people around Ireland. Asked whether the company feared that some staff might leave as a result of the return-to-office order, Mr Boumphrey said that he believed Amazon’s work culture would prevail.

“The culture that Amazon has always had has been one of trying to invent at scale for customers,” he said.

“And if you want to do that, you’ve got to move fast, because often you’re in a race. It also means that you want to make decisions fast. You need to collaborate with lots of different teams. The level of energy that I see in the office and the level of passion and water cooler conversations is fantastic. What we’re now saying is that we’re going back to a baseline of what it was like before Covid, which means the expectation is that people are in five days a week.”

Asked about staff who had set up their lives away from Amazon offices due to the cost of housing or other factors, Mr Boumphrey said that they would have to return to the office, but that there might be “exceptions”.

“There are two types of corporate employee, some who are coming to the office three days a week and others for whom there’s an exception. And we’ll have conversations with those people, but those exceptions might continue to apply.”

Despite the return-to-work mandate, Mr Boumphrey said that Amazon would continue to be a “really flexible” employer.

“If I need to go to a doctor’s appointment or my son’s not well, that’s okay. We’re still going to be a really flexible employer, but we’re really passionate about making sure we make customers’ lives better and easier.”

Separately, one of Amazon’s most senior executives said that Ireland should lead efforts against “putting up trade barriers” in the EU.

Russell Grandinetti, senior vice president for international stores at Amazon, said that the excoriating criticism about the EU’s industrial policies from former European Central Bank president Mario Draghi this week should be considered.

“I think that those are important and timely,” Mr Grandinetti said of the Draghi Report’s recommendations, which labelled the EU as ‘overregulated’ and said that the bloc risks falling behind the US in industrial growth and open trade.

“Europe could really benefit from relatively less focus on putting up trade barriers in a focus on how to actually grow,” he said.

“Ireland sits in a unique position to foster what I hope would be an increasingly constructive dialog about trade across the Atlantic Ocean.”