Réada Cronin (Kildare North, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

As my colleague, Teachta O'Rourke, said, Sinn Féin will support the Bill, but with reservations, as we have articulated at the climate committee. I hope the Minister will note those reservations. That this Bill is necessary at all is due to the negligence of this Government and its failure to plan. Sufficient unto the day might work for the headlines that this Administration governs by but it is in no way sufficient unto the people who are depending on adequate electricity supply for their day-to-day lives. We were incredibly lucky to have had a winter that was relatively mild but we might not be so lucky again. It is unfortunate to use the work "lucky", which is inappropriate considering what the mild weather signifies in respect of climate change.

It is seven years since EirGrid warned of the increasing tightness between demand and supply. For seven years and more, Fine Gael-led Governments have spectacularly failed to manage our energy system with something approaching competence. The party has brought the State to the brink of blackouts and has introduced social uncertainty and the economic harm that goes with it. Successive Governments have squandered ten years by failing to generate additional electricity, failing to address the exponential increase in demand from data centres and failing to protect our State from the threat of shortages that, in turn, threatens inward investment, as IDA Ireland has warned. This Government is all show and spin. The visionaries who set up Ardnacrusha hydroelectric power station and gave us rural electrification must be turning in their graves at how their legacy was frittered away for the sake of ease and international popularity.

In its panic, this Government is now giving EirGrid extra powers to procure 450 MW of emergency back-up generation capacity but that is far too tight an amount. Our homes and businesses cannot run on luck. Simultaneously, the Government parties have failed to provide gas storage capacity and to realise the potential of our renewables, especially offshore wind. However, the ports in the Twenty-six Counties are not ready for offshore wind and our planning system is not ready either. All this Government has left us ready for is to fail and to face blackouts. It is bad for families, private businesses, public businesses and our international reputation, about which the Government seems to care so much. Lights are going out except in the data centres, which got the céad míle fáilte and the red carpet rolled out for them with no regard for the strain it was going to put on the grid. Right now, data centres use as much electricity as all the homes in rural Ireland combined. They are responsible for 14% of the electricity consumption in the country and that figure is set to double over the next seven years. Within eight years, EirGrid predicts demand for electricity will increase by 37% and a large swathe of that increase will be down to data centres and their voracious appetite for energy. The projections of the Department of the Environment, Communications and Climate show that data centres and large energy users will consume six times more electricity than all electric vehicles and heat pumps combined by 2030. Not for a second do we accept that the electrification of heating and transport is putting equal pressure on the grid compared to data centres and their devouring of electricity.

Prioritising the energy needs of data centres over the needs of people is farcical in the context of just transition. The retrofitting plan is flawed, as it is designed to help the better-off, who can afford to put large sums of money upfront. Meanwhile, the warmer homes scheme, which focuses on the most vulnerable households, has a two-year backlog. It is not just cold houses for people who are not well off under this Government. It is also damp houses, with mould on the walls and windows, and massive energy bills landing on their hall mats. Energy poverty is rampant under this Government and I do not understand why we are not looking at photovoltaic, PV, panels, which are an absolute no-brainer. They can help households reduce their bills and allow them to sell excess electricity back into the grid.

Accelerating our abundant renewable energy resources, including wind, solar, hydro, wave, tidal and green hydrogen can help us to cut our carbon emissions, reduce the price of electricity, make energy secure and bring well-paid jobs to our people.

This legislation is rushed and signals the chaos that is running through this Administration. Things are always done at the last minute. For a State to amend its planning and licensing laws like this is as serious as it gets. We are getting chaos, pretence, headlines, spin and amateur dramatics from the Government, as has always been the way. It is a joke.

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