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

I thank Deputies for their contributions. I want to respond to some of the issues that were raised. The first of these relates to the process. It is challenging when we bring forward emergency legislation and have to waive pre-legislative scrutiny. That is unfortunate and regrettable. It is not something we want to be doing except in extremis, which is the position we find ourselves in because the power supply to the country is tight. We have a responsibility to the people of this country to keep the lights on, particularly next winter when we expect further difficulty because there will be an increase in demand, as we have seen in recent years, with our growing economy. That is a result not only of data centres but also of a growing population. We have a lot of older plants on which we cannot rely and which will have to come out of the system. We need to provide alternatives.

This is the third piece of emergency legislation to deliver some of the emergency powers we will have next winter. It is regrettable and I would prefer if we did not have this legislation. We looked at every avenue and mechanism to avoid it. We considered the use of secondary legislation. We examined whether the earlier piece of legislation for An Bord Pleanála could be applied across to the EPA, but the legal advice we received last month was that having looked at the various different alternatives, we needed legislation and it needed to be introduced quickly because of the timelines required to ensure power for next winter. It is something I regret but it is the responsible thing to do rather than to risk leaving us without power.

A number of Deputies mentioned the Dermot McCarthy report in their submissions. I asked Mr. McCarthy, former Secretary General to the Department of the Taoiseach, to conduct a review to examine why we ended up in a situation where we were short of power and had not purchased the back-up generation we need to keep our system working. The report will be published, I expect, shortly after our return from the St. Patrick's Day break. It will be accompanied by other measures to enhance and support our energy security. The review will likely show what we have seen in the wider world, that is, that we need to put more attention on security and low carbon, as well as competitiveness. People talk about the trilemma in energy policy of how to keep the price down and ensure security of supply while not breaching environmental regulations. Across the western world in general, and in western Europe in particular, including in our own case, we should have put greater attention on the security aspect. That is not a specific criticism of any agency - I will let Mr. McCarthy's report speak for itself - but a recognition that in this uncertain world of high energy prices, one of the best solutions is to ensure a resilient system so a country is not exposed.

I share some of the sentiments expressed by others, including Deputy McNamara, that data centres are not a representation of all that is evil. We have to manage the growth in demand and ensure data centres are part of a flexible, low-carbon system. However, to depict them as the source of all our ills would be unfair and inaccurate. We have a significant increase in demand to manage due to data centres. I believe we can do that, including, particularly, through the development of our renewable power supply. That is not just talk. We have probably the highest concentration of integrated renewables from variable supply on a synchronistic market system anywhere in the world. We are in the top two or three countries in terms of how we integrate such variable power supply, particularly from wind, which has such variable characteristics.

We are good at this. Last year was a record year for renewables deployment. I am convinced we will beat that record this year and next. This is the way the world and our country are going. We are going to go 100% renewable but that will take some time.

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