Leo Varadkar (Dublin West, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

It is true that energy costs have greater impacts on business in Ireland. That is partly as a result of our geography. We are an island on the edge of Europe and things have to be brought here by boat and by plane before being put on trucks and trains to be transported further. It is also partly down to the way our population is distributed. Responsibility for the area of data centres falls to the Minister, Deputy Eamon Ryan. I could be wrong but my understanding is that the decision in question has been implemented. A number of months ago, the Commission for Regulation for Utilities, CRU, heavily restricted the connection of new data centres, particularly in the Dublin area but also in all other parts of the country. I might not be 100% fully up to date on that. I am not sure that measure will have a significant impact on energy prices in itself. Data centres use approximately 10% of our electricity. From some of the commentary, you would think it was more. However, we believed the share they were using was increasing too fast and that is why those restrictions were brought in.

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