Mr. Dara Lynott:

With respect to 2030, our study has incorporated projections by EirGrid for data centres, which are a big user of electricity. They also provide challenges and opportunities. The fact that they are always on allows some potential flexibility in the storage of energy that can be used by the wider grid. By being on the grid they reduce costs across the grid for everybody else.

Currently much of the energy for some of these big companies is green electricity procured through corporate power purchase agreements separate from main contracting or auctions held for wider electricity. It is hard to predict and we are not an expert body when it comes to projections. We rely very much on what EirGrid indicates in this regard. We live in an organic system when it comes to electricity and it is a chicken and egg scenario. If the data centres were not there, would consumption collapse somewhere else or would renewables get built?

Data centres are in Ireland because of their attractiveness to the economy and ecosystem within the economy, particularly the information technology economy we are trying to support in Ireland. They are very important in that regard. One imagines that with their arrival in Ireland, more solutions will be provided both by EirGrid and suppliers that will make them a very important part of the ecosystem.