Timmy Dooley (Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I will take up what Dr. Bresnihan said about the moratorium. I can understand where he is coming from but the reality is climate change and carbon emissions are global in nature. From his knowledge, will he point us in the direction of some other region of the globe that would be better suited to data centres? It is okay to say "let us not do it" or "not in our backyard right now", but we need to recognise the demand for data centres is there.

I take Dr. Carton's point that we need to be better globally about what data we retain, but that is not emerging right now either. Are we effectively saying "no" to something that may be of long-term benefit to us? We all recognise the pressures and constraints on our grid. I have listened to what EirGrid has to say and it certainly does not paint the pessimistic position the witnesses have. It is talking about 20% by 2030 as opposed to what was alluded to, which is the potential for up to 70% of the demand being required by data centres. I ask for the witnesses' views on that.

Not to ignore what has been said, but it might be useful to have EirGrid and the regulator come before us at the earliest opportunity to see where they are on this particular issue.