Colm Burke (Cork North-Central, Fine Gael)

I note the Department has progressed this matter. However, I am concerned about the time period with regard to developing this policy further. We are under pressure with increasing demand for electricity. Therefore, we need more facilities in place to generate that electricity, whether it is through solar farms, wind turbines or new forms of generating electricity. We need to fast-track it now because the economy is growing at a far faster rate now than anytime before, and data centres are making a huge contribution to the economy as well.

As I set out earlier, there are 14 data centres currently under construction and another 40 have planning permission. Therefore, the demand for electricity will increase, and we need to respond to that demand. Some of these centres may not be able to progress because the infrastructure is not there to supply the electricity to them. We therefore need to see how we can fast-track it but also how we can fast-track the whole issue of licensing to allow the building of wind turbines at sea and make sure that can be done in a timely manner. It is interesting how other countries in Europe have been able to do that, and have done it over a very short period because they saw the demand was there.

Another issue has occurred in the past two to three weeks. The issues in relation to the conflict in the Middle East show that there was a threat for a period that we might have a sudden shortage or that there would be restrictions on the supply of oil. It further highlights the reason we need to be self-sufficient in the generation of electricity, whereas we are currently reliant on resources from abroad. We need to give priority to this.

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