Duncan Smith (Dublin Fingal, Labour) | Oireachtas source

My other concern is that these data centres are light on creating jobs. For a building of such size, there may only be a couple of dozen workers there. We are dedicating large spaces to companies like Amazon, which has appalling workers' rights records throughout the globe, to create these massive data centres.

I know these corporate purchasing power agreements are unsubsidised but I am concerned about them because it is the beginning of corporate creep into our energy generation at a time when our energy security is not certain. The Minister is strong on this and there is much in the programme for Government on energy security but we are not there yet and these data centres will be hiving off and keeping for themselves much clean renewable energy generation to go into centres which, although storing data, are not creating jobs. Is it cumulatively a total good? I am not convinced it is.

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