An Coimisiún Pleanála (ACP), Ireland's national planning appeals authority, formally upheld planning permission in September 2026 for Amazon Web Services to construct a subsea Cable Landing Station (CLS) at Tullyneasky West near Clonakilty in County Cork, rejecting a local appeal against the project.

The approved development involves demolishing two existing structures and erecting a cable landing station, an ESB substation, a switch-room facility, and associated external infrastructure. The location sits approximately five kilometres from Clonakilty. This decision ratifies the Cork County Council's initial approval from April 2026, removing the primary planning obstacle for the eastern terminal of Fastnet—AWS's first 100% privately owned transatlantic subsea cable system.

Fastnet will link Maryland in the United States directly to County Cork, engineered to deliver more than 320 Terabits per second of unmetered, high-throughput bandwidth for intercontinental cloud and artificial intelligence workloads, with an anticipated 2028 operational launch.

Landing Station Infrastructure and Maryland Terminal

Globalinx Data Centers is developing and operating the purpose-built Cable Landing Station in Maryland that will host AWS's Fastnet cable. Globalinx signed a 25-year lease with the Ocean City Council in late 2025. AWS, which initially contacted city officials independently, subsequently partnered with Globalinx as the facility's primary tenant. The Maryland CLS is scheduled to reach Ready for Service status in Q3 2027, preceding Fastnet's 2028 launch target. Positioned roughly 170 miles from Northern Virginia's data center concentration in Ashburn, the Globalinx facility provides direct terrestrial backhaul while establishing Maryland's inaugural international subsea cable landing.

Appeals Decision and Environmental Mitigation Measures

Neighboring property owners filed the planning appeal, raising objections about visual impact, traffic volume, noise generation, and safety concerns tied to fuel storage for emergency generators. The ACP inspector's assessment systematically addressed and rejected these concerns:

  • Since the landing station operates without permanent staff for routine functions, the board determined post-construction traffic would remain minimal, preventing local road impacts.
  • The facility replaces two existing metal agricultural buildings. Inspectors found the low-profile industrial structure does not expand the visual footprint beyond the original constructions.
  • Horizontal Directional Drilling at Owenahincha beach will route the fiber underground, protecting nearby Special Areas of Conservation and maintaining coastal tourism environments.

Strategic Value: Transatlantic Connectivity and Route Diversification

Fastnet addresses two interconnected strategic objectives for AWS's worldwide infrastructure:

Avoiding Established Transatlantic Bottlenecks

Historically, transatlantic subsea fiber has concentrated in established corridors, terminating at New York and New Jersey on the American side and Cornwall, Bude, or Slough in the United Kingdom. Fastnet establishes a separate physical route from Maryland directly into West Cork, shielding AWS traffic from seismic activity, fishing hazards, and geopolitical risks affecting conventional pathways.

Dedicated Transatlantic Bandwidth for AI Workloads

As European organizations expand Large Language Model training and inference operations across AWS European availability zones in Dublin, Frankfurt, and Zurich, Fastnet furnishes dedicated, low-latency capacity to connect workloads directly with AWS's primary U.S. East Coast computing infrastructure without incurring third-party transit expenses.

Outstanding Regulatory Requirements and Development Timeline

With national-level land-use planning authorization now finalized, AWS proceeds into the concluding regulatory and construction phases:

  • Maritime Area Consent (MAC): AWS must obtain foreshore authorization from Ireland's Maritime Area Regulatory Authority (MARA) to install and bury the subsea cable 1.5 meters deep beneath the Irish territorial seabed.
  • Station Construction (Late 2026–2027): Demolition of existing structures at Tullyneasky West is planned for late 2026, with CLS building construction anticipated to require approximately 12 months.
  • Community Benefit Fund: AWS has pledged approximately €150,000 to West Cork community programs, emphasizing STEM education and community development initiatives in the Clonakilty area.
  • Target Service Activation: 2028 Ready for Service (RFS).