Peter Burke (Longford-Westmeath, Fine Gael)
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Both are important. It is not simple to decouple them. We need to be clear about the value that data centres bring to our economy. Ours is a modern economy that has attracted significant investment. Approximately one in every seven euro that we will spend under budget 2025 will come from foreign direct investment, that is, corporation tax, in our economy. As a value proposition, our country needs to be agile and have the scope to attract significant employers that employ many high-value jobs. We need a sustainable approach and certainty as regards how we manage our large energy user policy in the next number of years. Our target is to have 37 GW of offshore wind energy by 2050. We need people to be able to use that energy. Currently, our country uses approximately 6 GW. With our economic growth, we are on course to exceed 10 GW. Given the number of offshore renewable projects we will have on the east coast in the years ahead, though, we need to bring value to the Irish people from that energy. Data centres and other large energy users will play a part in that. We will need infrastructure and we will need customers to use that energy. We will need to book that economic value in Ireland. Many companies are underwritten by data centres booking so much economic value here. This country has an agile way of working, one that was challenged by the pandemic, and having so many significant employers is important.

The premise of the Deputy’s question is incorrect. Our trajectory can accommodate sustainable economic growth, decouple that from emissions, which the evidence shows we have commenced doing, and offer high-value jobs.