Darragh O'Brien (Dublin Fingal East, Fianna Fail)

I thank all Senators for their contributions. There are general points and a large degree of commonality within specific points. First, I thank Senators for their support and understand about the urgent nature of this legislation to be passed.

Senator Clifford-Lee said that this investment will enable the development of critical infrastructure to underpin the NDP delivery across all our different areas of delivery.She is absolutely correct that we have to look at transport, housing, water infrastructure - all of those various things. Like other Senators, she also raised the point about affordability. Ireland's energy prices for consumers are too high. We are working on that through the national energy affordability task force. We are about the eighth highest in Europe for electricity. It is not where we want to be. We did bring forward measures supported by the Senator and Government colleagues in respect of immediate measures. We published the national energy affordability task force interim report, and brought forward things like the 9% VAT rate, a permanent change up to 2030. It saves about €100 per annum, which is not insignificant, and it means we do not have to go back every year. That has been agreed. There is the expansion of the increased fuel allowance, a very targeted payment to about 460,000 households, to recipients of the working family payment, about another 50,000 households. I have engaged directly with the energy providers. I met the four largest providers myself and will be meeting the remainder. At my request, they have all agreed to re-establish hardship funds, which is good. The energy providers need to play their part too.

Electrification and further electrification of our grid will lead to lower prices, reducing our dependence on fossil and imported gas in particular. As we know, Corrib is a diminishing supply. It is a fossil fuel that will diminish and will probably not provide any additional gas after 2035 or 2040. About 70% to 80% of our gas then comes through the pipelines from Scotland. That is a risk but it is a dependency on fossil. Thankfully, renewables are scaling up. We are the best in Europe at integration of renewables into the grid, notwithstanding some valid points that Senators from Opposition parties have made. This is trying to be useful, but if Senator Collins does a quick Google of the Dutch energy system - she referred to ACM - she will see the severe difficulties they have with grid congestion in Holland right now. It is not a criticism but just based on an analysis of that model, but I would not be inclined to follow it. We will deal with any proposed amendments next Tuesday. They will certainly be debated.

There has been a discussion around large energy users and data centres, too. I expect the large energy users policy to be published shortly, because it does need to be planned out. That is going to be very important. The Government is positive on data and new data. We have to be at the cutting edge of new technologies, particularly around AI and what comes next. We are in a fortunate position, I would say. Our colleague from the Social Democrats was quite critical of the number of data centres. That is foreign direct investment in this country, underpinning tens of thousands of jobs. A lot of the large energy users and data holders here are among the biggest companies investing here, employing people in good jobs and paying them. The idea we can turn around and say we do not want this is not something I would stand over. To be fair to Government parties and our Independent colleagues, we have been very clear in the programme for Government that we want a plan-led approach and we want to continue to enable new data to be located in Ireland.

Price review 6, which will be published next month by the CRU, takes into account that future industrial growth, not just in data centres but economic growth, and also underpins the investment required to deliver the 300,000-plus houses we plan to build between now and the end of the decade. It is not one or the other. There has been debate suggesting it was either data centres or housing but that is not correct. I do know of the instance of those 80 homes. There was a delay on the ground there. There is no grid constraint with regard to housing connection. The constraint in some areas has been down to administrative issues but it is not just that. We do have a dispersed way of living in Ireland, too. I get the point Senator Cathal Byrne has raised about how long it takes for connections to one-off housing. Senators will also know how long it took in some areas, particularly rural areas, to reconnect post Storm Éowyn, because our grid is incredibly dispersed, particularly compared with European colleagues. That is a reality of how we live. We are looking at other mechanisms there.

All Senators, including Senators Dee Ryan, Duffy, Scahill, Collins, Cosgrove, Stephenson and Cathal Byrne, raised the resilience issue. We saw what Storm Éowyn, Storm Darragh and others did and the impact they had. These weather events are far more prevalent, as Senator Clifford-Lee said in her opening remarks. We have to invest in the resilience of our grid system. That requires tens of thousands of pole replacements, new energy infrastructure in the form of cabling and so on. We are not on our own in this. At the Energy Council, when I am discussing matters with other energy and environment ministers across Europe, it is clear that all of Europe is investing in the grid. Europe's grid in the main is about 40 years old. In some countries it is even older, so this type of grid replacement is needed.

Thankfully, price review 5 was done. The point was made by a couple of Senators about how we can oversee the delivery of this. Price review 6 will be like a capital plan. It will be project based. Our challenge will be to deliver it all, to be frank. Thankfully we are in an economic position, thanks to the hard work of our citizens and good economic management by successive Governments, where we can provide equity investments through the ICNF and by using the surpluses we have had over the period to invest in infrastructure like the grid. Because we are giving the equity investment, it means there is less requirement for borrowing. The credit rating of ESB has been mentioned. It is a very strong rating but after this was announced, it increased from A- positive to A positive. That will reduce the cost of borrowing. This is good.

I have not covered every matter raised here but I have taken note of all of them. Senator Boyhan asked for a briefing document on the community benefit fund. Communities are critical in this and in respect of renewables it is crucial that there are community benefit funds that work for people. We will provide that briefing note in advance of Committee and remaining Stages next week. I genuinely thank Senators for their interest and input. I have taken note of the points that have been raised and look forward to concluding this piece of work next week.