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

Some data centres with new technology use water while others use air. The EPA regulates their usage and it is important that it does so effectively. The corporate sustainability reporting directive and reporting requirements are coming down the line. We have signed up to the directive and the data centres will have to comply with it in terms of the measures and parameters the Deputy has set out, which is very important for information that is now being driven by the customer, which is very important, and not just seen as a cost.

In response to Senator Higgins on the just transition, there are huge opportunities contained in it and we are working very closely with our Department to ensure we embrace those opportunities. I have seen it in my own locality as a TD with the work Bord na Móna has done, leading to a clean, green company. The former Minister, Deputy Bruton, would be familiar, through his work in the Department of the Environment, Climate and Communications, with how much that has changed and how it is now a foremost company in Ireland in how best practice is achieved, going from a very old type of fossil fuel base to what it is now. When you see its energy parks, you see what the future is.

In addition, in the tourism space and other areas, being from the lake county and looking at Longford as well, I have seen a huge amount of work where the just transition has linked up with tourism and our Hidden Heartlands and our strategy in that regard. We are very much at the forefront. Working with the new Commission as it is established now, there is a huge amount we have to do. We need to show people that this transition is fruitful, it benefits communities and good jobs can come from it.