Tens of billions of euro of investment is being diverted to other countries due to uncertainty around Ireland's data centre policy, according to Digital Infrastructure Ireland.
There has been an effective moratorium on new data centre connections since late 2021, while the Commission for the Regulation of Utilities is currently reviewing its policy on large energy users.
DII has called for a firm timeline from the CRU on the publication of that policy - and says a fresh wave of investment is now at stake.
"You cannot get a connection off the grid now from either ESB Networks, Eirgrid or Gas Networks Ireland," said Maurice Mortell, chairman of Digital Infrastructure Ireland. "We're still waiting for the CRU policy decision on large energy users to come out - we're four years now in a defacto moratorium on any new investments."
As part of the National Development Plan, the Government committed €3.5 billion to upgrading and securing the energy network - key to addressing the current bottleneck in the system.
Mr Mortell welcomed this, but said this did not resolve the uncertainty that persists.
"I think it's welcome... I think the reality is, though, that's going to take time to deliver," he said. "If you look at the level of investment that we've lost over the past 12 months - billions of dollars of AI has gone into the UK, the Nordics, central Europe, the Mediteranian.
"They're 10 year investments - we won't see that again for a while."
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Mr Mortell said that he accepted there were a number of factors that had to be considered - including the enviromental impact data centres have - but the lack of a clear policy was not benefitting anyone.
"In order to look at a long-term strategy for Ireland, we need to have clarity around what is Ireland's renewable energy timeframe, what capacity are you going to bring onto the grid and how can our industry continue to develop and grow in Ireland," he said.
A recent report by Blackrock said that data centre investment in Ireland had peaked, and was now growing at a faster pace in other countries.
Ireland was an early leader in the area of data centres, but despite that Mr Mortell said it was not inevitable that it would eventually start to fall behind others.
"Dublin wasn't the only big metro - there was Amsterdam, there was Paris, there was Frankfurt, there was London and they all went through similar growth to ours," he said. "It wasn't always that we were going to peak and then stop - we just didn't invest in the grid and the capacity at the right time.
"All of the things that are coming through now was planned 10 years ago - it wasn't news to EirGrid or ESB Networks that there was going to be new capacity coming online."
