Brian Stanley (Laois-Offaly, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

I am saying to the Deputy that the Department engaged with Eir about four years ago. Permission was given to Eir to service those 150,000 premises. The bad news is that there is no obligation on Eir as a private company to go 1 yd or 1 m further than that. Yes, we should raise it with the Department. As I recall, Mr. Griffin was not there at the time, but I raised it at the time with the officials and the Minister. There is no obligation on Eir to go 1 m further than it has gone. It has the rich pickings. The Deputy will recall that there were three interested parties up until that day, and after that date two of the other interested parties - one of which was the ESB - pulled out. That is why. We should raise it with them on the day that they are in, but unfortunately that was the deal set at the time. It looked good because 150,000 premises were going to be captured, but the problem is that this allowed that part of the network to be captured and made it difficult to get by, with no obligation to go any further than that. This made the rest of the contract so unattractive that the other two bidders pulled out. This is what actually happened with it. The Deputy is right that this is a serious issue, and we will raise it with them on the day they are before the committee. Perhaps they are now engaging with the private company but it is like a lot of other things in that the State does not hold the cards here, unfortunately, Eir does. The committee will request an up-to-date briefing from them and will have them in on the day. That very much needs to be a focused meeting on the national broadband plan.

No. 788 B is from the Minister for Enterprise, Trade and Employment, Deputy Leo Varadkar, received on 15 September 2021, providing information requested by the committee in relation to data centres and Ireland's electricity grid.

Last week we considered correspondence on this matter from the Minister for Environment, Climate and Communications, and agreed to forward the correspondent to the committee that shadows the Department, and to request information on expenditure on contingency measures to prevent rolling blackouts.

This item focuses on a national strategy for data centres, which is set out in the Government Statement on the Role of Data Centres in Ireland's Enterprise Policy, which was published in 2018. While the statement acknowledges the considerable challenges to the capacity of our electricity grid posed by data centres, it does so in the context of regional development and what it refers to as "high quality, sustainable jobs", although it is unclear how much employment is created by data centres in the long term.

The Tánaiste also states that he and his Department are acutely aware of the challenges that significant electricity demand poses, and that his Department is engaging with the Sustainable Energy Authority of Ireland to encourage investment by large energy users on renewable electricity generation.

It is proposed to note and publish this item.

I also propose that we forward it to the Joint Committee on Enterprise, Trade and Employment for the information of its members. That is important. Is that agreed? Agreed. I call Deputy Catherine Murphy.