SAN FRANCISCO – A planned US$1 Apple billion datacentre appears on the skids following talks between Irish Prime Minister Leo Varadkar and the US company’s CEO Tim Cook, who would not commit to the project.

Apple in February 2015 announced plans to build the facility in a rural location in the west of Ireland, but on Thursday Varadkar said Cook would not commit to going ahead with it.

“We didn’t get a start date, or a definite commitment or anything like that,” said Varadkar, who is on a tour of the USA, adding he had told Cook that his government would do “anything within our power” to facilitate resumption of the project.

Ireland relies on foreign multinational companies like Apple for the creation of one in every 10 jobs across the economy. A similar Apple centre in Denmark, announced at the same time, is due to begin operations later this year.