Richard Bruton (Dublin Bay North, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I am on the climate committee at which the conversation frequently revolves around how we would meet our targets if only farmers would do X and the data centres would be constrained. That is the narrative, and it is as simple as that. We have hitched our wagon to these two sectors, but we have not evolved a long-term vision for them that is compatible with our climate ambitions. The conversation at political level is not sufficiently informed about where the constraints are.

It is very much a blame game conversation where it is in our national interest, in my view, that we the develop that cloud infrastructure that supports AI, but there are a lot of people who come to the debate full of good intentions who do not really see that. The Department must have a bigger role in explaining the constraints and how we might evolve. I do not hear many people talking about it. I think the sector itself has now set up some sort of a group but the policy debate in here is not sufficiently informed.