Ms Marie Donnelly:

On the private wires issue, it is an innovation in the electricity system as is hybrid connection. Part of the challenge across Europe, as we saw in Spain and Portugal with the recent blackout, is how to manage the stability of the grid. Part of that is ensuring the availability of power. If you produce apples in Donegal and you sell them in Dublin, you have to have a connection so the truck can get to Dublin to deliver the apples. Part of our difficulty is that our grid is just not there. We are on a single-lane highway to try to deliver electricity around the country. It is not enough. We need to ensure there is investment in the grid so that when we get investment in generation, we can distribute it. Backup supply in the system is hugely important. Ireland has invested a lot in batteries. I was at a meeting in Brussels after the incident in Spain and Portugal. There, they said that Ireland has nearly five times as many batteries as Spain which allows us to back up in a situation which unfortunately had the consequences it did in Spain and Portugal. The council fully agrees that data centres need to be integrated into the energy system in electricity supply and demand and heat. A point in our recommendation is that we need to change our heating system, particularly in urban spaces, to district heating mechanisms and draw the heat from places like data centres as feeders of heat into heating systems that can support houses, hospitals and schools. The pilot in Tallaght is working extremely well. This should be the norm; it should not be the exception. It should be a standard provision across all data centres that they have energised sustainable electricity before they commence operation, they become part of the electricity system and they supply heat to district heating systems in their vicinity to benefit the residential and commercial environment around them.