Paul Murphy (Dublin South West, RISE) | Oireachtas source

It is noticeable that the Minister did not mention data centres, which are the elephant in the room where our carbon emissions and energy usage are concerned. He has probably seen that the SEAI says that the growth in electricity demand from data centres last year was more than all the renewable energy that was connected to the grid last year, illustrating the problem of attempting to go down an escalator that is heading upwards faster than we are walking. It means we get further away from transitioning to 100% renewable energy. Data from UCC’s Professor Hannah Daly is even more shocking. She estimates that only 16% of the new electricity demand from data centres since 2020 was matched by additional wind energy generation. In other words, data centre demand grew six times faster than new renewables development. She further calculates that data centres are responsible for 4% of Ireland’s greenhouse gas emissions and 21% of our electricity demand. The latter figure is due to reach 30% by 2030, meaning data centres will reach approximately 6% of our total emissions while emissions from the built environment account for less than 10% of the total. What does the Minister think is more important, reaching the climate targets or promoting the growth of data centres?