Dáil debates

Wednesday, 29 June 2022

EirGrid, Electricity and Turf (Amendment) Bill 2022: Committee and Remaining Stages

 

4:07 pm

Photo of Bríd SmithBríd Smith (Dublin South Central, People Before Profit Alliance) | Oireachtas source

It seems there has, in effect, been a moratorium on data centres since June 2020. I understand EirGrid approved 1,800 MW of electricity for future data centres but had applications for 2,000 MW and cancelled all that capacity. That may be a fact but we also know restrictions on data centres are applied only to new applicants. This was confirmed to us by officials from the Minister's Department at the most recent meeting of the climate committee. We have had very little time to deal with this very complex issue. He will be aware that his pals in Friends of the Earth have sent in a series of very sensible questions on everything from how these provisions will operate, the cost to the State, the environmental impact and the risk of lock-in and demand reduction. There is a plethora of questions we have not been able to address because of the rushed nature of the legislative process.

As I said, it has been confirmed by departmental officials that only new applicants will be refused access to the grid. However, there are open, approved and promised connections to the grid in place. Is the Minister trying to tell us that in the case of Grange Castle in Clondalkin, for example, TikTok will not be connected even while it busily beavers away building a massive data centre in the area? I do not believe that for one minute. It will be connected and the extra power provided for in this legislation will be needed to facilitate it.

It is important to note that not everyone in the data centre industry and the global multinationals likes or agrees with what is happening. In response to the de facto moratorium, IDA Ireland has warned that cancelling data centre projects will hold back the country's efforts to become a global business and technology hub. Google has pleaded with the CRU that the moratorium will send the wrong signal about Ireland's ambitions as a digital economy. I am not bringing forward this amendment for the craic or because I do not believe the CRU is, in effect, implementing a moratorium. I believe we need this provision in legislation because the types of Governments that run this country consistently come under huge pressure from global corporations to subscribe to the idea that we must facilitate ever expanding growth in the technology industry. That pressure means more to the Government than the pressure that comes from below, that is, from Deputies in this House and from the needs of ordinary people. That is why I want to push this and see it enshrined in legislation rather than leaving it up to the good sense of the Minister, his Department, the CRU and EirGrid. It needs to be legislated for in order to ensure the pressure from global corporations does not come down on the Government much more weightily than the pressure coming on it from below from ordinary people and their elected representatives.

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