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

If we are honest, the purpose of this Bill, which is being rushed through the Dáil in an emergency fashion by the Minister with the support of all his Green Party colleagues, is to bypass current environmental protection legislation. It is not about shortening the process in that regard. It is about bypassing , fast-tracking and streamlining it and avoiding the need for an environmental impact assessment in respect of two emergency projects at Tarbert and Shannonbridge.

This is the third item of legislation that will have been rammed through this House in this manner in the past six months to deal with the same issue. The panic does not arise as a result of the fact that EirGrid had to issue amber alerts at an alarming rate last year, which it was, because the grid cannot keep up with the demand. We are told that the war in Ukraine, Putin's plans and the wind not blowing have all conspired to push us towards the brink of blackouts. That is why we have to bypass the norms and safeguards in this Chamber and fast-track legislation, and why that legislation is bulldozing over environmental impact assessments. That is why a Green Party Minister is pushing legislation to facilitate 450 MW of gas-fired, carbon-belching emergency generation plants.

What is happening is unbelievable. It is worth thinking about what that means. The Green Party has three times now pushed through emergency legislation bypassing planning laws and regulation and environmental safeguards because we have an emergency in power supply. However, that emergency does not stem from Putin’s machinations or from our geography or precarious connections to other markets. It is also not because the wind does not blow occasionally. It stems from the fact that, uniquely in Europe, our power demand has grown at a time when we need to shift from reliance on fossil fuels to renewable energy.

When Covid-related peaks and troughs are excluded, Ireland is unique in the European Union in having had power demand increase by 9% over the past five years. The EU average for 27 nations is flatlining. Many comparable nations have seen declines in electricity demand over the same period. That demand increase is not natural, normal or explicable as a result of our success in building a better society or more homes for our people. It is driven by the obscene needs of data centres and the obsequiousness of this State when dealing with the demands and wish lists of big tech and international corporations.

The Green Party has fought the corner of the data centre industry, spinning a fairy tale that we can have unlimited growth in data centres and it will all be fine as we grow our offshore renewable sector. We cannot do it. We cannot address the climate crisis by handing over the keys to State policy to private investment firms or big tech. This is what happens when we try to marry climate and social goals to the imperatives of capitalism and big business. We end up with the farce of a Green Party Minister tearing up environmental legislation, not in order ensure that the lights stay on in people's homes or in hospitals but to ensure that the data centres of Meta, Amazon and Twitter remain cool as they burn up our electricity and drive demand.

We have over 70 data centres and a further more will be connected to the grid soon. Applications have been filed in respect of four more centres and the operators of another 12 centres are talking to EirGrid about their plans. In addition, the ESB is reviewing the position relating to five separate centres. Meanwhile, Gas Networks Ireland is separately processing applications for 11 data centre connections to the gas grid. Therefore, we went from data centres consuming 5% of our electricity to 11% in five years, and it will jump from the current 15% to 30% in double-quick time. This is a sector whose energy demand rose by 144% in five years, which is single-handedly propelling us to the likely power cuts that this legislation is trying to head off.

The Minister's party is fast-tracking the purchase of gas-fired generators and bypassing planning and environmental regulations in order to facilitate data centre proliferation. It is as simple as that. No excuse will mask what is happening. It is in stark contrast to the Minister's latest approach to the idea of free public transport and how it might cause unnecessary trips by some people. I wonder if he equates those unnecessary trips with those who currently avail of free public transport, such as pensioners, people with disabilities and so on.

I have a final observation on the Bill and on previous legislation. It is still unclear to me from the briefing provided by the Minister and his officials if the phrase in the previous legislation on bypassing planning and environmental regulation applies only to the sitting generators at Tarbert and Shannonbridge. The previous legislation added the words “or alternative appropriate sites”, so the question then becomes whether we are setting a precedent so that any Minister or Government in the future can simply say it is an emergency, so X or Y site can also bypass these rules. Could, for example, Amazon or Meta say that their demand for gas-fired generation in the future is also an emergency? Could any other site not detailed here be suddenly pushed to the front of a planning process without planning or environmental regulations applying?

As outlined by some previous speakers, this is the problem with emergency legislation. It facilitates the tearing up of existing safeguards. It is a slippery slope and we cannot say for definite that it will end here.

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