Lynn Boylan (Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

This is slightly relevant but, because we have the time, I will ask the panel if it has any views on it. Data centres in Ireland is a big conversation and I will not go back there. I refer to AI and the amount of energy that is required for AI computer services. Should we be regulating what they are doing? In Ireland, should we have greater oversight of what the data centres are doing here? It is tangentially related to emissions. There is a too binary debate about whether data centres are good or bad, but we do not seem to have any oversight at a national level as to what the data centres are doing here. We do not even know who owns the data centres. One has to go to the individual web companies to find out how many data centres they say they have here. Is there a need for Ireland to show leadership on that oversight of what data centres are here, where they are doing, what is essential and what is non-essential work? Given that AI is increasing and that will probably be based here as well because we have got all the data centres, there is oversight of that computer technology as well, what is valuable to society, and what is only either pushing consumption through real-time bidding or all of that other stuff. It is a very loose question. I am sorry. I am only exploiting the fact that we have a bit of time.