Barry Heneghan (Dublin Bay North, Independent) | Oireachtas source

I want to touch base on the data centres issue again. We all know that they are gobbling up so much of our electricity. I want to touch base with regard to what was mentioned about the district heating system. I know Codema has done an amazing job in Tallaght. What it has done shows that it can be done, but it would not be the best route to go down in every single scenario. What was said about AI is very true as well. AI is optimising the cooling methods of data centres. We are seeing that with different racks and different methods being done. When talking about data centres earlier we have already established that.

I now want to discuss the other huge part of our energy consumption, namely, the heating aspect. What is the council's opinion on the current grants available for heat pumps and solar panels? Does the council think we need to increase them to incentivise the public to do more in that regard, seeing as it is one of the huge aspects of our carbon emissions? Having spoken to people in my constituency, it is still economically unviable for them to make the initial leap toward an energy revamp of their houses. Do we need to do that? What are the council's recommendations for the grants?