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

I would like to register my concern at the rushed nature of this Bill. Deputies only got sight of the Bill last Tuesday and it has not undergone any pre-legislative scrutiny, although we had a briefing on it, which was welcome. We in Sinn Féin and others in opposition had other important questions we wanted answered and we wanted to hear from stakeholders. There are still very many unanswered questions but we did not have the opportunity to deal with them. As is often the case, the Government had the numbers so pre-legislative scrutiny was waived and we are where we are. The Bill is now being rushed through all the legislative Stages as the Government scrambles to ensure the lights will stay on in winter 2023. That is an incredible situation to have left us in.

We will be constructive and we will engage, but we need to shine a light on the issues that got us to where we are. Successive Governments have walked us to the cliff edge and this Government is now in a rush and panic. Opposition parties got just one day to read the Bill and submit amendments, and I will touch on a number of Sinn Féin amendments. I make the point that rushed legislation often results in bad legislation and bad law. For a Bill dealing with a number of separate and complex issues, including the borrowing limits for semi-State companies, a change in the operation of the electricity PSO and the procurement of €350 million of emergency gas generation capacity, I want to state on the record that this is no way to do business.

The main aim of the Bill is to allow EirGrid to procure 450 MW of backup electricity generation capacity to ensure we have enough electricity to meet demand over the coming years. This mismatch in electricity supply and demand is a direct result of failed, incoherent Government policy. The Minister of State very quickly in his 12-minute speech referenced non-delivery of previous contracted capacity, increasing electricity demand and the increasing unreliability of existing plant. We could delve into each one of those issues and unpack the policy decisions, assessments, judgments and public signals that were made in regard to them that took us to a very different place than either had been intended or prepared for. We would have to ask how on earth we got to a point where there is a threat of electricity blackouts and we need emergency legislation to literally keep the lights on.

Data centres are at the heart of this problem. They now use as much electricity as all the homes in rural Ireland combined and this is set to at least double by 2030. This is putting huge pressure on our generation capacity and it cannot be consistent with our emissions reduction targets. The last Fine Gael Government rolled out the red carpet for data centres and sought to make Ireland the data centre capital of the world, with no thought about the impact this would have on our electricity supply or carbon emissions. The current Government has not changed approach, despite our more ambitious climate targets and the increased threat of electricity blackouts and amber alerts. The prospect of amber alerts is now in the common parlance and the vernacular of people in a way that it never was, certainly in my lifetime. Sinn Féin will move an amendment on Committee Stage tomorrow, again calling for a moratorium on the connection of new data centres to the grid. We literally are not in a space where we can be confident that they will not force the lights to go out.

Another reason the Green Party in particular might be keen to rush this legislation through is to gloss over the fact that it is a spending splurge on new fossil fuel infrastructure. This Bill will give EirGrid permission to spend €350 million on new generation capacity, which is likely to come in the form of backup gas-fired generators. Can the Minister of State confirm that €350 million is the ceiling, not the floor, of this expenditure? This spending flies in the face of commitments to move away from fossil fuel infrastructure and will further damage emissions reduction efforts in the energy sector.

In 2021, we saw an increase in our carbon emissions of about 6% and in 2022 we are unlikely to see any reduction either. We are now building new gas generators to ensure we can keep the servers running in data centres. The €350 million for these gas generators could have been used to install solar panels worth €5,000 on 70,000 homes across the State, reducing energy poverty in those homes. That would have reduced electricity bills and provided an income from microgeneration. Instead, it is these very people living in energy poverty who will likely foot the bill for the cost of this extra capacity via higher electricity bills.

How much will be added to household bills based on this proposition? The Minister of State referenced the €75 to be returned to people with the new configuration of the PSO because of the high price of gas, which is welcome, but, on the other side, is there an additional cost to households based on these proposals and, if so, to what extent? Will it offset the €75 that will be returned? Did the Minister of State examine the prospect of requiring large energy users to cover the cost of this backup capacity, given it is not homes in rural Ireland or anywhere else that are causing this demand, and it is largely attributable to data centres? There are a host of unanswered questions which I would like the Minister of State to address in his closing remarks or on Committee Stage tomorrow. As I said, there was no opportunity for pre-legislative scrutiny.

Will the Minister of State clarify if this additional capacity will be oil powered or from gas generators, or what form will it take? We have put down an amendment for tomorrow – I would like to see the Minister of State support it - that seeks to ensure priority is given to renewables and to zero or low-carbon options or those that are most easily retrofitted into zero or low-carbon alternatives so there is a prioritisation within the capacity we seek to bring on board. What criteria will have to be met for the new capacity to come into operation? Will this be an option of last resort or will it be scheduled for operation during the winter? Can the Minister of State outline what happens when these generators are no longer needed? Will they be decommissioned and, if so, in what way, will they remain in place as a backup to renewables, or will they be sold on to private energy companies?

The Bill will amend the Turf Development Act 1998 to increase Bord na Móna’s borrowing capacity to €650 million to help it fund its expansion into renewable energy. This is welcome, given the urgent climate crisis. We want to see the State, through semi-State companies, lead the way on investment in renewable energy to ensure the State retains as much ownership as possible of our energy production capacity. We know there is room for the private sector, which has an important role in our energy transition, but we want to see the State lead the way.

In regard to the amendments we will bring forward tomorrow, we will seek to prioritise renewable energy or low carbon backup electricity generation where possible; require EirGrid to have regard to the human rights record of electricity generators with which it enters into agreements; seek to introduce a moratorium on grid connections for new data centres; seek to provide for the sharing of information about the procurement of these additional generators from EirGrid and the CRU with the Joint Committee on Environment and Climate Action; seek the publication of the energy security review; seek a report into the policy failures of electricity supply and demand that led us to the point where we need to procure emergency additional capacity; and seek a report to be commissioned into the impact that Ireland’s participation in the Energy Charter Treaty, ECT, will have on our path to net zero and whether Ireland will be open to litigation by fossil fuel companies under the provisions of the ECT for taking action to phase out fossil fuels. That is particularly relevant in regard to the potential for lock-in on this new capacity. I would like to hear from the Minister on those matters in the Committee and Report Stage debates.

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