Ciarán Ahern (Dublin South West, Labour)

The most senior official in the Department of environment and energy said today that we will have to decide between building more homes or expanding our data centre capacity because our energy infrastructure cannot handle both. This is an extraordinary intervention. The Labour Party has long been sounding alarm bells about the scale of data centre construction. We have serious concerns about their energy consumption, the pressure they are placing on our grid and the dirty fuels they will have to use going forward because new renewable energy sources cannot keep pace with their exponential growth and energy demand. While data centres are currently responsible for 21% of our overall energy consumption, that figure will grow to 30% by the end of this decade. The Taoiseach, in particular, has been dismissive of our concerns. The Government's policy appears to be to give more and more data centres the green light. Will the Government now ignore the warnings of its own officials or will it take up the Labour Party's call for a moratorium on new data centres until we can at least be sure they will not put further pressure on our grid and can be self-sustained by energy from renewable sources?

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