Mick Barry (Cork North Central, Solidarity) | Oireachtas source

Does the Minister feel any embarrassment whatsoever about going to Glasgow as the representative of a Government that is rolling out the red carpet for unlimited data centres? He will be going to an international convention at a time when data centres account for 2% of global electricity use. He will represent a State that allows data centres use 11% of its national electricity output. More than that, he will go as the representative of a State that is planning to allow data centres consume 27% of national electricity output within seven and a half years, making Ireland a complete and utter energy outlier, which is a situation without comparison anywhere on the planet.

Singapore put a moratorium on new data centres in 2019. Amsterdam stopped issuing permits in certain parts of that city for a time. I ask the Minister to inform the House of what actions he intends to take and if he will keep bowing down before the demands of Facebook, Google, Amazon, Twitter and the other big tech corporations.

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