Paul Murphy (Dublin South West, Solidarity)
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116. To ask the Minister for Environment, Community and Local Government his views on whether current and projected energy and water demand from data centres and AI is excessive; the steps he will take to prevent data centres and AI from absorbing electricity and water needed for housing; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [30250/25]

Darragh O'Brien (Dublin Fingal East, Fianna Fail)
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The Programme for Government outlines the Government's policy position in relation energy policy, housing policy, FDI growth and the many other goals and objectives of the Government. It reflects the balance between the many opportunities and challenges facing the country and the actions that will be taken over the lifetime of the Government. It recognises that increased and unprecedented investment and delivery in our grid and expanding our energy generation capacity is a priority.

In the near-term already contracted data centres will be accommodated on the grid, for the medium-term, the Government has committed to developing a plan that will, inter alia, guide the development of plan-led data centre infrastructure in alignment with our decarbonisation objectives and growing Ireland’s knowledge-based economy that will provide certainty for the sector over the medium-term.

Government recognises the criticality of digital infrastructure in economic growth and the delivery of public services and acknowledge this will grow with the development of AI. The Government’s policy statement on Data Centres already outlines the principles for sustainable data centre development and encourages implementation of decarbonised energy solutions and to increase energy and water efficiency.

The Programme for Government commits to addressing the challenges of facilitating additional demand by data centres while also ensuring the competitiveness, sustainability and security of supply of our energy system, by scaling up investment in critical infrastructure and in our electricity grid and that data centres contribute both to economic growth and efficient grid usage, by enhancing the use of renewable energy, energy efficient technology and energy effective solutions.

My Department will continue its engagement with the Commission for Regulation of Utilities (CRU) and system operators in addressing the challenges around data centre connections aimed at protecting security of supply and mitigating negative effects to the local electricity network in constrained areas impacting other customers’ connections, including households and other commercial customers.