Pa Daly (Kerry, Sinn Fein)

Anybody who was in the House for any period earlier today will realise the priority and urgency afforded to the housing crisis. There are 15,580 people homeless. Then there is the rest, which Minister would have heard about, such as the average cost of rent being above €2,000. There is a housing emergency but instead of prioritising homes, this Government and those that preceded it have been reckless when it comes data centres. Instead of an approach that balances the energy demand from centres alongside that of other users, there is an absence of a plan. This Government is allowing the limited space on our grid to be gobbled up by data centres. The Minister's officials, including the Secretary General of the Department, have stated that policy choices need to be made between further data centre expansion and increasing housing supply. Why has the Government been blasé about these warnings? The reality is that successive Governments have failed to plan. The reason we cannot connect homes and data centres is straightforward; there is not enough capacity on the grid. What measures is the Minister taking to ensure that data centres do not gobble up all the new capacity? Will he review and reform the first-come first-served policy and mandate the CRU, which has commented on this issue, to prioritise new connections?

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