Eamon Ryan (Dublin Bay South, Green Party) | Oireachtas source

When this State enters a contract, it honours that contract. If contracts are breached, what can the Government be trusted to do in any other circumstances? Such breaches end up costing far more because people price in the risk associated with not being able to trust those who do not abide by contracts. It is therefore in our interests, as a State, to be honest and to abide by contracts we willingly enter into. That is not to say that we do not work with industry and tell it that it must be play its part in helping us meet decarbonisation targets. That is a key part of most companies' commitments, especially in light of the new accounting rules coming in. We will have to manage this. There will be an expansion. New data centres are already contracted for. There will be an increase. Additional capacity of 80 MW has been required each year for the last three years. The increase is likely to continue along those lines, although reducing somewhat in later years. That is what is expected in the medium term. That does not stop us from working with companies to ensure that their back-up power can help us to create a secure network, to ensure that this power comes from low or zero-carbon sources rather than failing to help us meet our carbon targets and to manage demand and choose locations in a way that helps us to balance energy security and climate considerations. We are working with the companies to make sure that is what happens.

See this speech in context