Paul Murphy (Dublin South West, Solidarity) | Oireachtas source

That sounded like an admission that data centres are pushing up household energy prices. The Minister of State might confirm that the Government accepts that is happening. That means the crazy data centre policy of the Government to allow big tech to come here and dump as much of this 21st century toxic waste as it can is not only driving us further from our climate goals, where the extra energy used by data centres is more than the extra renewable energy we have added to the grid through wind power since 2017, but is also driving household energy bills even higher. This is madness in the short, medium and long terms. We are prioritising the profits of big tech corporations and the need for data centres, which provide very few jobs. They guzzle electricity and water. We are putting them before people's needs today and the need for a habitable planet.

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