Jennifer Whitmore (Wicklow, Social Democrats) | Oireachtas source

In his speech earlier, the Minister, Deputy Ryan, made quite an astounding admission. When talking about the challenges of the electricity and the security of supply, he said, "The increase in data centre demand was forecasted and is increasing in line with forecasts." I thought the Government had taken its eye off the ball with this and fallen asleep at the wheel when it came to managing data centre increases. It seems this was actually quite a conscious decision, however. The Government consciously allowed data centres to increase to the point where we are facing blackouts. It consciously allowed data centre energy requirements to increase to the point where energy prices will skyrocket and we will have to have oil and coal-fired electricity, which was meant to be shut down and which will have to be continued. That a Green Party Minister consciously allowed that to happen is astounding. I could not believe it when I heard the Minister say it.

The Government made a decision to allow our energy supply to be stretched to the point of breakage. That is exactly what EirGrid said, that it was primarily from the data centres. The Government consciously allowed that to happen. For the Minister to call our moratorium a blunt instrument is frankly ridiculous. It is not a blunt instrument; it is the only responsible thing this Government can do at this point.

It is estimated that if all the data centre applications are granted, that will result in 70% of our electricity being used by data centres by 2030. There has to be a pause on it until the Government gets its house in order and figures out exactly what it means and how it can condition these data centres to make them sustainable and energy and water efficient to make them part of the data and energy solution in the country.

The Minister met last week with the Fridays for Future group, which talked about how it wants a fossil-free future, a liveable city and a just society, which I believe are things we would all like to see. It wants urgent and immediate action. Instead of the Minister taking urgent and immediate action today and putting a pause on data centres, he is going to allow them to continue to grow. Does the Minister think it is quite disingenuous that he said this to those students last week while getting his photo opportunities and is now refusing take the tangible actions they want him to take when he has the opportunity?

12 o’clock

The Government has the opportunity to make a change now. It has the opportunity to put communities, investment, jobs and the environment ahead of a specific industry. I really hope it takes that opportunity.

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