Lynn Boylan (Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

This is in a similar vein to Senator Higgins's amendment. It is about changing the mandate for GNI's board to bring it in line with the climate legislation and the carbon budget. As I have already said, just recently GNI released its ten-year network development plan for public consultation. In a staggering display of a lack of concern about the climate crisis, the organisation has outlined its plans for growth over the next few years. There is an incredible growth evident in the data centre consumer sector which we will discuss later. There are also thousands of new residential connections, as I have already said. More than 5,000 are set to be connected this year, outstripping disconnections. While the Minister of State has said that GNI is a relevant body under the climate legislation, I think we need to update the mandate so it can be left in no doubt as to its emissions reduction obligations and the phasing out of fossil fuels into the future. Rather than locking data centres and households into a fossil fuel future, the company should be figuring out what it is going to do with its asset when it will be no longer using natural gas as opposed to trying to make sure that we can never actually wean ourselves off gas.