Jennifer Whitmore (Wicklow, Social Democrats) | Oireachtas source

I, too, speak in support of this amendment. The Social Democrats had an amendment on data centres as well but, unfortunately, it was ruled out of order. The key thing, however, is the principle of the amendment and I hope the Minister will take on board these discussions.

I was disappointed in the Chairman of the committee and his comments yesterday because a brief Google search or a review of the CRU or EirGrid website indicate very clearly where the blame lies when it comes to this increased demand. It has been stated repeatedly and publicly that the largest demand on our electricity system at the moment is large energy users such as data centres. For the Chairman essentially to deny that was not appropriate and undermines many of the arguments put forward today.

I ask the Minister to ensure his policies and his legislation is evidence-based. The fact he is ignoring the amount of data and the pressures the data centres are putting on our grid is worrying and has led to a situation where he is rushing through significant legislation over the course of a week. The Minister mentioned the reason he was bringing this legislation forward is the existing process was too slow. This issue has been highlighted for quite a while. The Social Democrats had a motion in September of last year highlighting the risk of blackouts and brownouts, and at that stage we put forward a proposal for a moratorium on data centres. We were not saying to ban them. We were saying we should be strategic about where they go, how many we have and how many we approve to operate in the country. We were saying we should be strategic about what commitments and inputs data centres have and how they participate in the grid to ensure they are part of the solution and part of the system and not the problem. Unfortunately, the Government did not take those comments on board last year when it was probably in a better position to deal with this. Now we have a situation where we are rushing through legislation at breakneck speed and leaving many of us in the Opposition with more questions than comments about this issue, which is not acceptable governance.

The Government seems to be taking a "see no evil, hear no evil, speak no evil" approach to data centres. I just do not understand why there is such an emphasis on rolling out the red carpet for them when they are creating such difficulties with our electricity supply, energy security and the cost of grid infrastructure. It is unfortunate the data centre policy promised for quarter 1 this year and again for quarter 2 has not yet been developed, particularly prior to these discussions going through. Why has the policy not been developed? I ask the Minister, in his role, to seek to expedite that policy because it is important the Government develops it.

When I was first elected to the Dáil, one of the problems I saw in how we deal with environmental issues is we tend to compartmentalise. We stick the environment into one Department and that operates pretty much independently of all the other Departments. Unfortunately, that has not been rectified and at this moment there seems to a compartmentalisation even within the Minister's own role. He will put on his environmental, emissions and climate hat and bring forward the legislation and talk about how we need to reduce our emissions. Indeed, yesterday at the committee members, had to discuss and debate the sectoral ceilings, which will be problematic and challenging for every sector. When the Minister has his climate hat on, he is putting forward these suggestions, and then when he puts his energy hat on, he completely wipes out any gains that could potentially be made by proposing a Bill like this. It is like the two do not meet, that there is no connection between the two and the Minister is operating as two separate people. It is a poor way to operate. It will undermine our ability to meet our climate targets.

Will the Minister consider the evidence on data centres and ensure the emergency measure of a moratorium on data centres, for that is exactly what it is, is ingrained in this emergency legislation? When this legislation is complete and there is no need for it as we have the renewable energy, let us then have a debate about data centres, but at this time they are placing far too high a burden on our electricity demand and on our grid for them to be allowed operate carte blancheand get planning in a similar way. Will the Minister consider that?

See this speech in context