Lynn Boylan (Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

The Department of the environment has said that islanded data centres are not compatible with the climate action plan. I will quote a Department official for the Minister of State:

A spokesperson for the Department of the Environment said that any centre not hooked up to the electricity grid could damage Irish emissions targets. The policy statement highlights the undesirability of 'islanded' data centres that would generate their own electricity from natural gas. The decarbonisation section of the Government Statement states: "Islanded data centre developments, that are not connected to the electricity grid and are powered mainly by on-site fossil fuel generation, would not be in line with national policy. These would run counter to emissions reduction objectives and would not serve the wider efficiency and decarbonisation of our energy system. Growth in 'islanded’ data centres could result in security of supply risk being transferred from electricity to gas supply, which would be a significant challenge given Ireland’s reliance on gas importation."

That is a direct quote from a Department official in response to the 11 islanded data centres. We are now in a position where we know there are 25 of them. We do not know if that is the cap on it. There could be more than that, and the Minister of State is saying this is not the right place to do it and Gas Networks Ireland is legally obliged to comply with our climate legislation. That is deeply disappointing. While the Bill may be technical, it is amending the mandate of Gas Networks Ireland. If legislation amending GNI's mandate is not the right place for this, then I do not know where the right place is. We are in a climate emergency. The Minister of State's own Department has accepted that this is not in line with national policy.A year later, we know this is a problem but still are not doing anything about it. The Opposition is coming forward with constructive proposals to try to put a stop to this, to try to at least keep within our carbon budgets but our amendments are being rejected. It is deeply disappointing. I hope the Minister of State will accept that Gas Networks Ireland is not acting within the climate action plan by connecting these data centres to the grid.