Jennifer Whitmore (Wicklow, Social Democrats) | Oireachtas source

I thank the witnesses for their presentations. I did not expect to be first up. The Cathaoirleach has taken me by surprise.

My first question is to Ms Donnelly in relation to a note in her submission. She raises many concerns in relation to progress being made when it comes to renewable energy and she highlights risks to meeting the targets as a result of that. She also says that she recommends that planning permission for data centres should require corporate power purchase agreements so that they themselves are renewable and do not create any emissions. Yet, the barriers to the completion of many of these renewable projects include issues with construction workers, capacity issues in building and the processes. There is the planning process, getting through An Bord Pleanála and all those different administrative and logistical processes. If we are to allow continued growth in data centres - which have significant financial resources behind them - and if they can be the ones to access the developers that will be responsible for the construction of this wind or renewable energy, will that not be to the detriment of our targets?

Essentially, we need those renewable resources in place to meet our current energy and electricity demands, not any future or continued growth within them. I am not sure if I am explaining it correctly but does Ms Donnelly see a conflict there? Surely if we are going to be building renewable energy, the first place it should be prioritised to be used is for current energy consumption and not for projected growth of data centres?