Louise O'Reilly (Dublin Fingal, Sinn Fein)
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159. To ask the Minister for Enterprise, Trade and Employment the number of data centre projects in which IDA Ireland have invested over the past ten years; and the volume of funding in tabular form. [53191/22]

Louise O'Reilly (Dublin Fingal, Sinn Fein)
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160. To ask the Minister for Enterprise, Trade and Employment the number of companies in which IDA Ireland has invested over the past ten years that have data centres in the State; and the volume of funding for same in tabular form. [53192/22]

Leo Varadkar (Dublin West, Fine Gael)
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I propose to take Questions Nos. 159 and 160 together.

IDA Ireland supports and facilitates companies to expand and establish in Ireland. Any company investing in Ireland, with an FDI mandate, may receive financial support within the EU State Aid guidelines. In view of the capital intensity of data centres, and their location to date in the greater Dublin area, IDA Ireland has not provided grant aid towards the construction or employment activities of data centres.

In reference to the Deputy's second question, it is not always disclosed to IDA when a cloud or software company has data centre assets in Ireland when this is done through a third party or co-location provider, due to a number of factors, including the absence of IDA grant aid for those data centre services.

Some of IDA’s largest technology clients have a broad range of activities in Ireland, including R&D, engineering, digital sales, administration, customer experience and data hosting. As part of IDA’s strategy, it continuously seeks to support the development of additional activities and skills through grant supports, which contributes to, and deepens the client companies' investment impact in Ireland.

Data centres are an important part of the modern global economy and support the growing digital and data-based characteristics of many businesses, including manufacturing, global business services, retail and financial services. Data centres are a key infrastructure component of the country’s FDI technology sector, a sector that currently employs over 100,000 in high quality jobs.

This summer my Department published a revised policy statement on data centres. We must ensure that the decarbonisation and digitalisation of Ireland's economy and society are complementary and in harmony with environmental policy. The 'Government Statement on the role of Data Centres in Ireland's Enterprise Strategy' sets out how we intend to do that.