TL;DR

Belfast City Council’s parties could not agree a formal response to the Northern Ireland Executive’s draft public-sector AI strategy. Instead, the council will submit a paper from its officers that elected members have not ratified, and parties are free to respond separately. The sticking points were unclear plans for data centres and their effect on energy bills, with one party also attacking the draft’s legal footing.

What Stormont proposed

Stormont’s executive released the draft strategy in August, with consultation open until October. It sets out a framework for “responsible” use of AI across public bodies, built on eight principles covering areas such as accountability and redress, security, fairness, transparency, the environment and training. Each AI project, it says, needs a team of people overseeing it who check accuracy, guard against bias and challenge what the system produces.

The officers’ view

Council staff drafted a reply that was broadly supportive but asked for more. They said the role of councils was “not sufficiently reflected”, wanted more detail on how the plan affects public services and small businesses, and wanted a stronger focus on AI literacy, getting everyone online and helping workers move into new roles. They also suggested a public-sector AI procurement framework to keep buying ethical, transparent and sustainable.

Why councillors balked

At September’s Strategic Policy and Resources Committee meeting, the Green Party refused to back either the strategy or the reply. Councillor Brian Smyth said Northern Ireland has three data centre applications pending, yet the council’s answer on a regional data centre amounted to “we don’t know”. He cited the Republic of Ireland, where he said data centres took 22% of national electricity supply in 2025, raising what households pay, and warned of fuel poverty as many gas bills rise by nearly 20% from 1 October.

The SDLP’s Dónal Lyons said the draft offers ethical principles with little statutory backing, and fails to mention the comprehensive AI law he said the EU has just adopted. In his view it also skips over Northern Ireland’s access to the EU’s single digital market, and whether firms could exploit loopholes by offshoring. He called the document one with “no substance at all”, written in the language of “a second-hand car salesman”.

Context

Belfast’s stand-off echoes data centre rows across the UK. This week a 1,000MW campus was proposed at Chapelcross in Dumfries and Galloway, weeks after Scotland paused hyperscale decisions, and residents near Lymm in Cheshire are organising against another scheme.

Looking forward

The council’s split shows that public-sector AI plans are now judged on infrastructure costs as well as ethics. For Stormont, a final strategy that leaves data centre siting and power costs unresolved may meet similar resistance elsewhere. Northern Ireland suppliers bidding for public AI work should watch for the procurement framework the officers proposed.