Simon Coveney (Cork South Central, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I hear the Deputy on that, although I think she is making the assumption that all of these wind farms will be built anyway and instead of them powering houses and other parts of our economy, they are powering data centres. The truth is that many wind projects are being funded by companies that want to decarbonise the powering of their data centres. Many of the renewable projects happening in Ireland are happening because companies are setting ambitious targets for themselves with regard to decarbonising and ultimately getting to net zero in the future. That is driving the funding of many of the renewable power generation projects in Ireland. Do not make the assumption that there is billions of euro out there that will build wind farms all over the place easily. Many of the offshore wind farms - I hope we will be able to get them moving and funded – will be projects that will be funded by large private sector companies that are on a decarbonisation journey and know they need to get to targets by 2025, 2030 and so on. That is not a bad thing. It is driving a whole industry and helping to fund it in Ireland. Comparing the Irish economy to other European economies, we are very different. It is a good thing that Ireland is driven by technology and data as an economy. It gives us a huge competitive advantage. It is not a bad thing and it should not be painted as that.