Lynn Boylan (Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

I wish to touch on a couple of points that were raised. I welcome Ms Donnelly to the committee. She highlighted how essential public participation was in the transition. From my point of view, that is why the design of the schemes we have is critical. She referred to the importance of microgeneration and of allowing people to be part of the process of transition and understanding the energy system. However, the Government's own analysis of the model it proposed scored zero in terms of equity when it came to microgeneration and, likewise, with the retrofitting scheme. Retrofitting should not only reduce emissions but it should also reduce energy poverty. However, the Department of Public Expenditure and Reform's analysis of 2020 of the current Sustainable Energy Authority of Ireland, SEAI, scheme stated that it did not have sufficient data to determine if the scheme is making an impact on energy poverty. I would like to hear Ms Donnelly's comments on how climate justice has factored into the Climate Change Advisory Council's analysis and deliberations, and the importance of getting those schemes fit for purpose.

Second, I wish to pick up on the issue of data centres. Ms Donnelly said that data centres were the lifeblood of our future modern society. That is correct; we need data centres but, surely, we need an analysis of what type of data centres we have. Ireland is an outlier when it comes to the number of data centres it has. The biggest user currently in Ireland is not the HSE or people working from home; it is Amazon Web Services. Some would argue that Amazon Web Services is not exactly critical infrastructure. Its current model helps fossil fuel companies extract fossil fuels faster and more efficiently. We need to look at exactly the type of data centres we have. It is now accepted by the CEO of EirGrid that we are inviting the seven power plants to establish in Ireland to feed the demand from the data centres. He said that to a data centre lobby group. How does that square with the Climate Change Advisory Council's analysis? Ms Donnelly said that the greatest reduction of overall costs of transition is reduction in demand. We have to get that. That is the hierarchy here. We have to reduce that demand. Do we need a more nuanced approach to data centres? We know we need certain data centres but it is the type of data centres and what they are doing. Moreover, although we signed up to the Beyond Oil & Gas Alliance at COP26, we are inviting in these seven new gas power plants. Surely, that poses a risk to our targets. Has the council looked at that?