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

For certainty on this matter, I wrote to Gas Networks Ireland earlier in the year. It is not just about data centres. There is a whole range of areas in which Gas Networks Ireland must be told to stop expansion. These include the delivery of gas to new homes and new data centres because it will only cost us later as we will have to take that infrastructure out. We have made it clear to Gas Networks Ireland that this is not where we are going under Government strategy. We are going to move towards very large-scale deployment of renewable energy. That will not be easy but I believe we can deliver it. That will give us a more stable fuel source for data centres at a lower cost while emitting less carbon. Electricity is the primary source of energy for the heating, cooling and power systems these data centres need for their operation. I will again refer to a meeting I attended at COP27 in Egypt with the largest of these new data centre companies. That company said that it was going to switch to measuring carbon associated with delivery hour by hour rather than just buying up renewable power supply. It recognises that it must ensure its operations move towards zero carbon hour by hour and we are going to work with that company on this. As a country, we can provide that capability through our renewables system, through grid management, which we are good at, and through energy management and balancing capability. We have every reason to help companies with delivering on this. This industry will not be gas-fired into the future. It will have to be zero carbon.

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