Micheál Martin (Cork South Central, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

In terms of focusing on just one aspect of this challenge, we should focus on the broader picture. There are two fundamental challenges, digitalisation and decarbonisation, which we must try to reconcile.

Whether we like it or not, data centres are a necessary infrastructure for many of the services we now take for granted, including technological advances such as cloud computing, quantum computing and artificial intelligence, and the rapid growth of the use of Internet services by enterprises, consumers and political parties, by the way, which are increasingly driven by data, data analytics and so on. However, we have to do it within the context of the climate challenge. In terms of the construction of data centres, that means a very strong focus on energy usage, corporate purchase power agreements, on-site renewables, demand flexibility, battery storage and other sustainable solutions to reduce the burden on the grid.

See this speech in context