Mr. Jerry MacEvilly:

Absolutely. On the energy side of things specifically, which probably merits a discussion in itself, there is a requirement, and not necessarily commitments but discussion in Government circles, around the need for data centres to essentially match their output to levels of renewable generation and also around demand flexibility. Some of that is appropriate and possible, but we have to be absolutely clear - UCC's MaREI has excellent research in this area - the level of demand that is projected from data centres is simply not tenable and not consistent with our carbon budgets. It is extremely unclear to me, even with matching of renewable generation, whether it could still be in accordance with those climate commitments.

To conclude, the other issue is what generation for these data centres is new and additional. One could put in this requirement - this has been put forward in the Amazon proposed development - for a corporate power purchase agreement and, essentially, where such CPPAs are put in place, ask is there a renewable generation that is being taken up and would that otherwise by used to decarbonise the Irish energy system more nationally.

That issue needs much greater analysis.

There is a real issue around speculative data centre connections. Of those that are being put forward, we are still unclear about which ones are realistic, which have put forward planning permission, and why clear climate plans are not put forward as part of those developments. I had an additional point that I have now forgotten.