Darren O'Rourke (Meath East, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

The prospect of blackouts is quite incredible. In my area, County Meath, and in Dublin West, there are particular pressures. I am aware of this from having spoken to people in the sector. We have noticed a significant increase in outages. Whether they are related to the issues under discussion is a separate matter but there is certainly a coincidence, at the very least.

We are hearing from a range of people about the prospect of blackouts. This is in the public discourse. I heard Professor John FitzGerald on the radio over the summer talking about going back to the 1970s, when we faced the reality of blackouts. There is genuine mismanagement and policy incoherence. On the one hand, there is the shift towards renewables but, on the other, there is increasing demand for data centres. What assessment has been made of current and future demand from data centres? How has this been factored into our energy policy?

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