Darragh O'Brien (Dublin Fingal East, Fianna Fail)

There is no clear preference for data centres over anything else. That is just not correct. Our priorities are for the delivery of housing and additional water infrastructure, investing in our energy grid and supporting indigenous jobs and investment and FDI. This is a red herring, trying to bring forward the narrative that we are not connecting houses to the grid because we are connecting large energy users instead. That is not true; that is not the case. We have already contracted headroom to deal with large energy users up to 2030. Independently of me - it is not just me saying it - the Commission for Regulation of Utilities, through EirGrid and ESB Networks, has already put forward its plans up to 2030, which will deal with 50,000 homes per year, the homes Government said it wants to deliver over its term, and deal with economic growth. Look at what our energy system has been able to do. Going back to 1990, the economy has grown sixfold, the population is up 50% and we built 135,000 homes in the previous Government, of which the Deputy was part. No one came to me and said an estate was not being built because there was a big data centre or large pharmaceutical or other company across the road. I will not say it is dishonest but it is disingenuous to continue with this argument that there is a conflict between economic growth, investment in our grid and housing growth; there is not.

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