Colm Burke (Cork North-Central, Fine Gael)

At present there are 82 data centres in Ireland. They use up 6 TWh of electricity, which is 21% of all electricity produced. There are 14 data centres under construction, and a further 40 centres have planning permission. By 2030 there is potential for 100 additional data centres in Ireland. It is now a major challenge. There is concern that the fact they use 21% of the electricity will put pressure on the electricity suppliers with regard to being able to cope with the demand. The companies involved in data centres have represented to me that the best way to deal with this is for them to be able to lay cables from the power source. What they propose is wind turbines at sea. Cables brought from these would go directly to the data centres. The data centres would then have their own power lines and would not be reliant on supply from the main electricity suppliers in Ireland. There would be the added advantage that any surplus electricity they have would be fed back into the national grid.

The advantage in Ireland with regard to data centres is that Ireland has 10% of all of the European data centres. For a country of this size it is a phenomenal percentage to have. With the generation of AI and everything else, we will have even more demand for data centres. Therefore, we must respond appropriately with regard to how we plan forward. We also need to plan for the provision of electricity and the generation of electricity, and we need to fast-track the issue of wind turbines at sea. We probably have the best potential in Europe but compared to Norway or Sweden we are very much at least ten, if not 15, years behind with regard to generating electricity from wind turbines at sea. There is also the challenge that when wind turbines are put on land there are concerns because no matter where we put them they are within a very short distance from existing dwellings. This can cause its own problems for the residents of the houses.

We need to fast-track the legislation to deal with this. We need to encourage, and provide licences for, wind turbines to be put in place at sea. We need to go through the planning process and get them up and running. We also need to legislate so that data centres, which have the resources and finances to do so, can lay the cable directly from the source of electricity to the data centre. Any surplus electricity would be fed back into the grid. This issue needs to be given priority. We have a growing population. Recent figures show that 5.45 million people are now resident in Ireland. It is a growing population. We need to generate electricity and cater for the companies that want to develop data centres in future.

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