Michael McNamara (Clare, Independent) | Oireachtas source

I would very much like to continue along similar lines to that of my colleague, Deputy Connolly, with regard to the emergency and when it is going to come to an end.

What steps are going to be taken by the Government to bring this emergency to an end? Everybody in the House accepts that there is a potential shortage of energy in the State and that something needs to be done about it. I would, however, question why there is such a shortage of energy and what is going to be done to meet the energy demands of the State, other than to import energy when it is possible to do so. We are not the only country that is short on energy but I dare say we are short of energy for very different reasons to some other countries, with which we now have to compete for hydrocarbons to generate electricity.

In considering why we are short of energy, I accept that data centres have very much become a bogeyman of many in this House, for understandable reasons. I would differ slightly from them in that I do not blame data centres. There are many multinational corporations based in Ireland, primarily for corporation tax reasons. That will come under increasing scrutiny as time goes by because we have an over-reliance on the revenues they provide. One of the requirements of those multinational corporations is for data centres. If they do not have data centres in Ireland, they are going to have to construct them elsewhere. The reality of the world in which we live is that increasing amounts of data are being stored by multinational corporations. If data centres are not being built in Ireland, they will be built in countries where they will have an even bigger impact on the environment because those countries have climates that are less temperate, which will mean more energy to cool the enormous servers in the summer and heat them in the winter than would be the case in Ireland. We knew for some time that these large corporations were going to be requesting permission to build data centres in Ireland, but we seem to have done very little to produce energy or allow them to source it. Obviously, there is huge interest in the offshore sector in Ireland. EirGrid is unfit for purpose. Our grid is not able to take the amount of energy it is hoped to develop offshore in Ireland. There is the possibility, of course, of power-to-X, where the energy is produced offshore, brought ashore and directly fed to data centres that are located nearby. My understanding is that the Department and EirGrid have completely ruled out power-to-X as a possibility, which leaves us reliant on a national grid that is not able to take on the amount of energy that is proposed.

Every time I have raised the energy shortages in this country, I have been told that the solution is offshore energy. It is presented as a wonderful solution that will make us Ireland the Saudi Arabia of wind energy. In response to some of that verbiage, there has been considerable interest from international investors. An exciting announcement close to the start of this Government's term was that Equinor was to team up with the ESB. A little later, Equinor pulled out of the market entirely, apparently unconvinced that there was any capability to deliver on those exciting promises. Royal Dutch Shell followed Equinor by pulling out of the market shortly thereafter. A couple of weeks ago, we learned that the ESB has a new partner in mind and was in negotiations with the very large renewable company Ørsted. That was followed by an announcement regarding phase 2 of the offshore sector to the effect that we would not be proceeding within a foreseeable timeline. No timeline could be given as to when we will proceed with phase 2 other than in respect of two sites, one off the south of the country and the other off the south east of the country. I asked the Taoiseach where that left phase 2 and all the promises that had been made. He said he was not aware of that announcement, which was made by an official of the Department of the Environment, Climate and Communications. If I am to vote for this emergency Bill, I would like the Minister to outline what is happening with phase 2. What is happening with the rest of the country? The Taoiseach said we would have a phase 2 but that it would be plan-led rather than developer-led. That would be great if we had the capability as a State to develop a plan and to determine what areas would be the subject of offshore wind energy but I am not convinced we have.

It is a bit like those who opposed the involvement of Siemens in the development of Ardnacrusha and said we should do it for ourselves. I fear that if we were left to do it ourselves, we would still be in the process of constructing Ardnacrusha. We have limitations as a State. We have limitations on State expenditure. Some 33% of the State's GDP was spent on Ardnacrusha. I do not think the Minister is going to be able to spend 33% of our GDP on developing offshore wind energy. There are investors who want to invest in it but there is simply no coherent plan, at least according to what I hear from people involved with those investors, coming from the Department. There is nothing in which they can invest to instead of investing in Ireland, they are moving to Scotland, which is proceeding with real, tangible plans to develop an offshore wind sector to power its needs. Where is our plan and what is happening? I look forward to the Minister's response.

See this speech in context