Naoise Ó Muirí (Dublin Bay North, Fine Gael)
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85. To ask the Minister for Public Expenditure and Reform for an update on the progress of a State data centre; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [27731/25]

Emer Higgins (Dublin Mid West, Fine Gael)
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The Government data centre initiative is led by the Office of the Government Chief Information Officer, OGCIO, a division within my Department. It is an action item in the Government’s public service ICT strategy and aims to deliver and centrally support ICT as a shared service rather than have common technical solutions in each public sector body. The Government data centre project will deliver high-quality, energy efficient data centre facilities which are fit for purpose and are capable of efficiently meeting the Government's technology and energy saving requirements, both now and into the future. It will provide access for State bodies' ICT infrastructure to drive efficiency, standardisation, consolidation and the reduction in duplication as well as cost control. It is also an important element of the Government's strategic framework for fostering technology innovation and excellence across the public services in Ireland. That is something we, as a Government, encourage and recognise continually. In fact, the Taoiseach, the Minister, Deputy Chambers, and I will tonight do that at the 10th Civil Service Excellence and Innovation Awards.

Following a successful procurement exercise by the OPW in 2022, a preferred bidder was chosen and a contract signed for the construction of the Government data centre in late 2022. The data centre construction project, which is co-funded by the EU's National Resilience and Recovery Programme, started in quarter 1 of 2023 and was successfully completed in early May 2025, earlier this month. The project came in on-budget and on-time. The next phase of the Government data centre programme will be the internal fit out and that will include the procurement and installation of racks and internal networking. That will begin in June and is scheduled to be completed by the end of this year. It is expected that the Government data centre will be operational from 2026 onwards and public service bodies will begin transitioning all their ICT infrastructure and services to the data centre from that point.

Naoise Ó Muirí (Dublin Bay North, Fine Gael)
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Gabhaim buíochas leis an Aire Stáit. I have a couple of comments. I welcome the fact that the project seems to have worked well. We hear a lot about public sector projects and about the ones that do not work well but this one seems to have come in on time and on budget. It is very positive that the data will be located in Ireland. It is very important that the State has control of its own data because this is an issue for international data centres and jurisdictions.

With regard to policy, I support data centres. We all use our phones every day and they run off services based in data centres. The Government can take a good lead here with respect to renewable energy. That is number one. It should lead out on data centres transitioning to long-term sustainable sources of renewable energy. The CRU's view is that Dublin is constrained. There is a long-term opportunity to distribute data centres around the west of Ireland in particular where there are renewable energy opportunities in the form of offshore, which is not that well developed but it will get there. It distributes economy activity.

Barry Heneghan (Dublin Bay North, Independent)
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I thank my constituency colleague for bringing up data centres and the State data centre. The programme for Government talks about expediting private wire legislation. As Deputy Ó Muirí just said with regard to the decarbonisation of data centres, as we are all aware, 21% of our electricity is being used by data centres. While other Deputies will attack data centres, there are 53,000 jobs indirectly or directly linked to data centres. I am not going to shout at the Minister of State and say they are using this electricity. We could use the expedition of private wire legislation to allow data centres to create their own on-site energy, as Deputy Ó Muirí said. This would then allow the giant companies to create on-site solar panels or, as the Deputy said, run private wires from other renewable projects. It is important that we do this.

The CRU's announcement three months ago was not welcome and was not in line with the programme for Government. I urge the Government to expedite the private wire legislation to allow us to reach our EU climate targets.

Malcolm Byrne (Wicklow-Wexford, Fianna Fail)
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I thank Deputy Ó Muirí for raising this matter. I express concern about the remarks reported in the Irish Independent today by the Secretary General of the Department of energy. It is not about a choice between housing and AI. We need to build housing but we also need to prepare for our tech future. This is also, by the way, the same Department that is responsible for the development of renewable energy, particularly offshore, and has continued to fail to meet the targets in this regard. I am really concerned about how this debate is now being presented.

The future is both green and tech. They are not mutually exclusive. The Government needs to reassure the public. The story in today's Irish Independent is deeply concerning if it reflects the views of a senior civil servant. The Secretary General needs to be held to account for the failures of her Department to meet the issues around renewable energy. I agree with Deputy Heneghan that there are new, modern data centres, including Echelon in Arklow, which can generate their own energy.

Emer Higgins (Dublin Mid West, Fine Gael)
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I thank the Deputies for their comments. The new Government data centre will provide secure but also green operations that will future-proof the reliable delivery of essential digital services. The intention is to operate a hybrid model utilising a Government data centre that combines Government and commercial cloud technology in an optimised way. That is part of the Government's wider digital strategy.

The Government data centre will be a 4 MW facility and obviously, as Deputies have pointed out, all data centres require energy. They are, however, an important part of being able to do business in Ireland and, from a Government perspective, being able to keep all our citizens' information within Ireland and safe. The Government is keen to achieve the decarbonisation of data centres. It has been great to see certain data centres take the lead themselves and not wait for new requirements, for example, using the excess heat from data centres to power public buildings, as South Dublin County Council is doing.

Naoise Ó Muirí (Dublin Bay North, Fine Gael)
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I thank the Minister of State. Decarbonisation is vital. Data centres are with us for the long term. Let us distribute them; they have economic value. It is a good way to distribute economic value to other regions in the country. Those regions may have better access to renewable energy than the Dublin region or Leinster. In the long term, the Government can take a lead on this.

I know the Minister of State has personal know-how in this area. I welcome the Government's work on this. Green jobs, as Deputy Byrne said, are the future. Technology is interlocked with that, whether we like it or not. Some people do not like it but it is a fact of life. Private wire is part of that, as Deputy Heneghan said. Whether we like it or not, we have to move with this.

Emer Higgins (Dublin Mid West, Fine Gael)
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Yes, and that is something Government is examining in detail. We need to make sure we invest in our digital infrastructure but that we do so in a way that balances our environmental commitments and obligations. We are working very hard to strike the right balance.