Pearse Doherty (Donegal, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

Following on from the final matter raised on Leaders' Questions, yesterday the Taoiseach could not give an cast-iron guarantee that there will not be any blackouts as a result of electricity shortages. Yesterday it was reported that the Tánaiste was saying he was reasonably confident that there will not be any problems. People want more than that. People want to know there is a guarantee that there will not be blackouts. All the while, ordinary people are seeing prices increase and hikes in their bills because of the failure to plan adequately for demand largely driven by the proliferation of data centres in recent years. I note, in particular, the work of the RTÉ journalist, Mr. Philip Boucher-Hayes, in highlighting this issue and, again yesterday, highlighting how the Irish Academy of Engineering wrote to the Department of Enterprise, Trade and Employment in 2019 and received no response. It is a very serious issue. Despite the slew of Fine Gael Deputies coming out yesterday and backing the continued construction of data centres, it is clear that we need to have a conversation about the demands placed on the energy infrastructure into the future.

See this speech in context