Lynn Boylan (Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

I move amendment No. 4:

In page 12, to delete lines 30 and 31 and substitute the following: “(ii) by the insertion of the following definitions:

“ ‘Act of 2014’ means the Companies Act 2014;

‘carbon budget’ has the meaning assigned to it in section 1 of the Climate Action and Low Carbon Development Act 2015 (as amended), and means the total amount of greenhouse gas emissions that are permitted during the budget period;

‘climate action plan’ has the meaning assigned to it in section 4(1)(a) of the Climate Action and Low Carbon Development Act 2015 (as amended), and means the annual plan prepared by the Minister to pursue the national climate objective;

‘emissions’ has the meaning assigned to it in section 1 of the Climate Action and Low Carbon Development Act 2015 (as amended), and means in relation to greenhouse gases, emission of those gases into earth’s atmosphere attributable to industrial, agricultural, energy or other anthropogenic activities in the State;

‘greenhouse gas’ has the meaning assigned to it in section 1 of the Climate Action and Low Carbon Development Act 2015 (as amended), and means—

(a) carbon dioxide,

(b) methane,

(c) nitrous oxide,

(d) hydrofluorocarbons,

(e) perfluorocarbons,

(f) sulphur hexafluoride, or

(g) nitrogen trifluoride;

‘national climate change adaptation framework’ has the meaning assigned to it in section 5(2)(a) of the Climate Action and Low Carbon Development Act 2015 (as amended), and means the plan prepared by the State which specifies the national strategy for the application of adaptation measures in different sectors and by a local authority in its administrative area;

‘national climate objective’ has the meaning assigned to it in section 3(1) of the Climate Action and Low Carbon Development Act 2015 (as amended), and means the State’s obligation, so as to reduce the extent of further global warming, to pursue and achieve, by no later than the end of the year 2050, the transition to a climate resilient, biodiversity rich, environmentally sustainable and climate neutral economy;

‘national long term climate action strategy’ has the meaning assigned to it in section 4(5) of the Climate Action and Low Carbon Development Act 2015 (as amended), and means the long term strategy which specifies the manner in which it is proposed to achieve the national climate objective;

‘sectoral adaptation plan’ has the meaning assigned to it in section 6(1) of the Climate Action and Low Carbon Development Act 2015 (as amended), and means the plans made by such Ministers of the Government as the Government considers appropriate, in relation to a matter for which each such Minister of the Government has responsibility;

‘sectoral emissions ceiling’ has the meaning assigned to it in section 6C(1) of the Climate Action and Low Carbon Development Act 2015 (as amended).”,”.

The amendments in this grouping aim to bring Gas Networks Ireland in line with the climate Act. The State should be leading on climate action. A key step to doing that is making sure the mandates of State bodies are in line with the climate Act. Since October 2022, I have been calling for emergency legislation to prevent islanded data centres from connecting to the gas grid. At that stage, we had learned there were initially 11 data centres seeking connection to the gas grid. We have recently heard there are more than 25 seeking connection on top of that. These islanded data connections to the grid could, in effect, blow our carbon budget out of the water. Since that statement calling for urgent legislation, the Government's Climate Change Advisory Council has echoed that call and come out in favour of much stronger action against islanded data centres. In a letter to the Oireachtas joint committee, Marie Donnelly, the chair of the Climate Change Advisory Council, outlined that she does not want the Commission for Regulation of Utilities to sign any more contracts to connect data centres to the gas network and that if the Gas Act was preventing such an action being taken, the Government should take immediate action to change that. That is what we are attempting to do through these amendments. We cannot allow GNI to continue to grow its network unabated.

I welcome the efforts of Friends of the Earth, which has been mobilising its members on this important issue. As has been pointed out, the Minister, Deputy Ryan, stated, in the context of GNI, "The future will not be providing fossil gas to an ever expanding network of customers or users ... There is no big future expansion in gas use there." The best time to legislate against these islanded data centres was before the 11 to which I referred sought connections when the moratorium relating to data centres connecting to the electricity grid came in. Failing that, it would have been better for the Minister to have acted when there were 25 data centres seeking connections to the grid. Now the Minister is being given another opportunity to, in effect, put an end to the enormous risk that allowing the continuation of data centres to connect to the gas grid poses to the climate Act and our carbon emissions targets.

Before the Minister of State responds on the amendments and indicates whether he will accept them, I ask him to, at least, tell us how many data centres are currently seeking connection to the gas grid. Initially there were 11 of them, then we had to go searching for information and then we heard it was 25. We are now hearing rumours that the number has again increased. I ask the Minister of State to confirm how many data centres are in the pipeline and when the State is going to take firm action to prevent them from getting those connections.