Dara Calleary (Mayo, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

The Deputy is absolutely right that data centres are an important part of the solution for increasing the supply of sustainable energy. They can transform energy usage through the use of corporate purchase power agreements, through on-site renewables, demand flexibility, battery storage and many other sustainable options and solutions that will reduce the burden on the grid.

Our offshore wind industrial strategy recognises the important role of data centres for Ireland. Meeting our offshore renewable energy target, which is 37 GW by 2050, presents, as the Deputy identified, a massive opportunity to locate large new industries of the future in close proximity to offshore renewable energy projects. For many communities this will be well outside Dublin. The Minister of State, Deputy Peter Burke, and I had very good engagement with the Scottish Government two weeks ago about its track record in this space and what we can learn to do that.

The industrial strategy includes an action to assess the role that green energy parks will play in Ireland's future enterprise development. These new parks will attract significant foreign direct investment, create jobs and stimulate prosperity by co-locating the infrastructure required to produce the renewable energy with the large energy usages such as data centres that will use that energy. In particular, there will be a requirement to identify appropriate usage for the projected increased quantum of electricity that will become available, as identified by the Deputy, post 2030. The new flexible and predictable demand loads such as those required by data centres will be essential in managing that demand-supply equation.

I thank the Deputy for giving me the opportunity to clarify the position of the Department of Enterprise, Trade and Employment in relation to the ongoing consultation. There is some work to be done but I value the opportunity to place our position on the record of the Dáil.

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