Professor John Sweeney:

I thank Deputy Cronin. The prime attraction of Ireland as a site for data centres is the relative equability of our climate, which means that there are considerable savings to be made on the air conditioning and cooling costs such centres would incur in other countries. This matter might be better dealt with through planning laws.

It may well be, for example, that a requirement for self-generation of energy would be placed as a burden on such operations but certainly they should be subject to environmental impact assessment in terms of the available energy supplies, what it means for strengthening the grid and what it means in terms of a burden placed on society for which they otherwise are not paying the full price. That is best dealt with in the climate Bill where our focus is primarily on emission reductions. I take the Deputy's point that there are interconnections, to pardon the pun, of which we should take cognisance.