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

Much has been said about this issue, not because we have had plenty of time to discuss the Bill, but because we have been kicking back and saying we are not willing to forgo pre-legislative scrutiny and that we do not have enough time to discuss the detail of the Bill. This is setting a very bad precedent, in particular for the Green Party. At the first sign of the crisis, the Government essentially abandoned the mini safeguards relating to planning and development, and even climate action measures that are already on the Statute Book. This Bill sets aside the environmental impact assessment and several directives in order to fast-track these developments to facilitate gas-fired generators to be ready for next winter because we are told we will face great threats to our power supply if we do not move fast. Every reason under the sun is given for that potential outcome - from Ukraine, to "We failed to generate enough offshore wind", to "There are a lot more people coming on the grid", and so on, but the very obvious one is being ignored. We will park the obvious question, because it is a longer debate, as to how this wonderful market system for the supply of electricity was to usher in a new and great era of competitive energy and leave us all slán abhaile with energy at low prices. The neoliberal model that was introduced in the early 2000s utterly failed. Not only are people faced with massive bills, but they are also now being told - we just heard the evidence of the Deputy from Cork, that we may be facing blackouts unless we ignore all the environmental and climate legislation that has been put in place heretofore.

It is a tall order for the Minister of State, Deputy Ossian Smyth, to ask Deputies to pass this Bill. People Before Profit will not support it. We will vote against it. One of the reasons we are doing that is because what I really hate more than anything else is the idea that the Minister of State thinks that we are stupid, that we are eejits, that we would swallow the diatribe about Ukraine and the shortage of supply for the reality, which is that data centres are gobbling up something like 15% to 17% of the power from our national grid. It is an outrageous scandal that we are a total outlier not just in Europe but on the planet in terms of how we deal with the national grid and the facilitation of data centres. We are putting that aside because we are told that this is most important to our economy. Without the multinationals, we would all drop down dead. If they did not have their data centres, the multinationals would flee the country. This big hammer is held over political opposition and over the people of Ireland as if there is no alternative in this world but to facilitate Google, Microsoft and LinkedIn - all of the giant multinationals whose head offices are based here because they get access to a low tax regime. Now we are facilitating them to the hilt, with whatever amount of data centres they want.

I was not in the Chamber when the Minister of State made his contribution, but I was listening. He stated that we discovered somehow in 2021 that we were going to run into trouble in the winter of 2023 and so now in 2022 we have to pass this emergency legislation. I will tell the Minister of State what I think happened. I think in 2021 we discovered that there was going to be a problem and the Minister, Deputy Eamon Ryan, and the Minister of State sat down and did what they always do. The Minister always says that what needs to be done is this, this and this. They went to the top civil servants and they went blah, blah, blah like Greta Thunberg expressed many times about COP. I have seen it in action in the climate committee. The amount of blah, blah, blah when it comes to dealing with reality is astonishing. They blah, blah, blahed the Ministers to death and they got to 2022 and they realised that, Jesus Christ, we now have eight mega data centres to be connected to the grid, which already have planning permission, that were not part of the moratorium that we insisted on and that they are going to gobble up 1.5 GW of energy, never mind the 450 MW the Government is buying in. This has all been documented in replies to parliamentary questions we asked and in evidence which we have got back. Despite what we are being told at those committees, that Ireland is not an outlier and growth of 9% in demand for energy is not unusual, even the CRU came back to us and told it is unusual. It said that no other country in Europe has had growth of 9% in energy demand in the past five years. That is what we have had, and it is due to the growth in the number of data centres. All of the other big economies in Europe – all 26 of them or whatever the number is; I always get mixed up with the number – have had zero growth in energy demand, in particular when we include the two years of the Covid crisis. We are an outlier for reasons, and now we are passing legislation that flies in the face of environmental and climate concerns in order to facilitate giant multinationals at an obscene level. It is not just about energy; it is also about water.

It is unusual. In fact, it is most extraordinary to see that this is being done under the guidance of the Green Party, who got into power saying they were going to be the saviours of the environment and they would drive a green agenda. The Green Party got its carbon legislation passed, but now it is unwinding it bit by bit in order to facilitate the economic powers that drive decisions in this country. We are tearing up the Planning and Development Act because we want to introduce a clause that will lift the constraints that may be imposed on data centres.

We will table amendments to the Bill. I have no doubt they will probably be rejected by Minister. If they are not rejected, there are other elements in this House that will vote against them. I am telling the Minister of State that this is a charade. It is a charade mainly because the Government is treating us like we are thicks, as if we do not see the reality of what is coming down the tracks. It is nothing to do with the war in Ukraine. We do not get our gas supply from Russia. We get our gas from Norway, from the North Sea across the interconnector from Moffat, and from Corrib. We are not under threat of gas shortage because of the reasons the Minister of State gave in his speech or that are continually spewed out to us, with passion, from Ministers and, in particular, from the Minister for the Environment, Climate and Communications.

This is not good enough. Despite all of the arguments we have made and all of the attempts by ourselves and others to pass Bills and motions to ban the proliferation of data centres in this country, we are continuing with the same old policy. Members can mark the words of those who predicted it, the scientists and even the data centre industry itself. The year 2030 is a big cut-off date for what is going to happen in terms of climate mitigation. We will have 1 million electric cars by 2030, and a reduction in emissions by 35% to 40%. We will cut the herd by 2030. Everything is mañana. It is for the next Government or the next part of the climate plan. It is kicked down the road and kicked for touch, but by 2030 if we keep going down this road data centres will be consuming not 15%, not 17% of our national grid, but 30%. The Government will have to fool the people and say: "Oh Janey Mac, we need more back-up generation." We are going to have to change the laws again and again. We are going to have to ignore environmental impact statements and our climate targets. We are going to have to go back on everything we said and continue our reliance on fossil fuels, not because we are not good enough at renewables, people are not playing their part or because a carbon tax has been imposed on them but because the Government is craven and bowing down, it cannot do enough for the multinational corporations that is it rolling out the red carpet for, who really do not give a damn and who are not playing their part because they are not paying the proper taxes in this country. The Government will do anything; it will bend over backwards to facilitate them in this pitiful little republic. No other country in the world does it, but we manage to do it. Albeit that we intend to attempt to amend the Bill, we are totally opposed to its passing.

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