Peter Burke (Longford-Westmeath, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I thank Senator Higgins for her questions. As I pointed out during my earlier contributions, it is not about the employment at the data centre; it is about how much employment it underwrites and supports. That is the key thing. There are so many companies in operation in our State that explicitly rely on data centres to underwrite their activities and keep the high-value jobs that are there. The critical thing - and it is a case people will argue about in the future - is that if you have a significant amount of renewable energy, when you have an opportunity such as Bord na Mona developing energy parks, when you have data centres operating off clean green energy and when you can support a hub in the ICT and technology area and grow investment there all the time, and if you can support that with our own domestic energy, that is a good day for Ireland instead of exporting that energy.