Data centre security and its impact on patients has rightly dominated the headlines this week. I want to focus on the related issue of data storage. We have taken a strategic decision to ensure that Ireland has become one of the key global centres for data storage. This has the potential to create and maintain long-term high-value jobs in the Irish economy. These jobs can be located in the most isolated house in Ireland. I fully support this strategy.

However, these data centres have significant demands for electricity and by 2030, 70% of this will come from renewable sources at a cost estimate of more than €9 billion, based on an Irish Academy of Engineering analysis. If this additional cost of data centres continues to be applied to all electricity customers and if we use the public service obligation distribution model across all customers, Irish families would pay an extra €123 per year just for the electricity going directly into data centres.

There is no doubt that electricity will increase in cost over the medium term to meet our renewable electricity target of 70% by 2030. In tandem with that we must actively support the retrofitting of every home in Ireland, including the homes of those who are reliant on social welfare, those who are working and those who are renting, to ease this burden.

Research commissioned by the Society of St. Vincent de Paul has shown that 43% of people reported experiencing at least one form of financial strain due to the Covid-19 pandemic. A quarter of them have cut back on food or utilities and 14% are behind in paying bills, such as electricity. While I support strategic data centre development, we cannot have Irish families subsidising the cost of their electricity on top of the additional cost of green electricity being supplied directly to their homes. This view is supported by the Government in a decision taken in June 2018, set out in the Government statement on the role of data centres in Ireland's economic policy to ensure that Irish families are not forced to subsidise the cost of data centre electricity supplies. However, this is yet to be implemented.

As we increase the level of electricity grid investment and renewable electricity to meet the needs of data centres, we must ensure that they pay for the cost of this additional investment.

I thank the Deputy for raising what is a very important issue. Without question, the expansion of data centres in Ireland has led, and will continue to lead, to a large increase in electricity demand, concentrated in the Dublin area, which raises challenges for the energy system. One needs to consider data centres more broadly, in terms of both the FDI situation and the digital economy and the digital transformation that we are undertaking along with other member states across the European Union. The European Union next generation funding majors on two key themes: the green economy and digital transformation.

Data centres are part of the core infrastructure of the digital economy. They have become increasingly important for remote working as we have seen during the pandemic. They also support high-quality jobs and some of the companies involved are offsetting the impact through investment in either wind farms and other renewable energy or forestry carbon sinks.

That said however, the issue needs to be planned and we need a strategic approach. In order to manage data centres in a planned manner specific energy-related actions are required, including for EirGrid and ESB Networks to work closely and innovatively with data centre developers to maximise the capability of the network to support timely connection and operation of data centres. In 2020 data centres represented approximately 11% of the total electricity used in Ireland. EirGrid’s generation capacity statement of 2020 to 2029 projects that demand from data centres could account for 27% of all demand in Ireland by 2029. In that context, EirGrid has launched Shaping Our Electricity Future, which is a comprehensive public consultation, and I invite the Deputy to contribute to that. Its aim is to make the grid stronger and more flexible in order that it can carry significantly more renewable generation and manage increasing demand from high-volume energy users such as data centres. One of the approaches in EirGrid's Shaping Our Electricity Future consultation focuses on a more plan-led approach to data centre development limiting further development in Dublin while other options revolve around major grid reinforcement projects and power generation technologies. The consultation on this strategy will open on 14 June 2021. EirGrid is the key agency involved here with data centres connections and related energy costs.

I take the Deputy’s point on fuel poverty. We have measures in place in the context of allocation of some carbon tax fund revenues towards alleviating fuel poverty more generally and to support people in difficult situations. This is an issue that is topical and requires ongoing strategic engagement.

Real climate action is about encouraging people along the climate journey in a constructive and positive way with the aim of achieving the goal that we all want, which is a long-term sustainable planet for our children and for their children.

The new Climate Action and Low Carbon Development (Amendment) Bill can provide the legal tools needed to bring this about but in the rush to get things done families are being needlessly sacrificed when there are alternative approaches which could be taken to achieve the exact same goal. We must be honest and upfront with people about the costs involved and the sacrifices that will have to be made by everyone.

Can the Taoiseach give a commitment that before Dáil Éireann passes the new Climate Action and Low Carbon Development (Amendment) Bill he will ensure that the McKinsey report on the cost of decarbonisation up to 2050 is published so that all of the options can be fully considered by Members before the enactment of that legislation?

I cannot give that commitment but I will talk to the Minister, Deputy Eamon Ryan, about that. We know that more demand will mean a higher level of renewable energy on the grid to meet Ireland’s 2030 renewable targets. The Government is now developing projects and policies to encourage the development of renewable energy by the data centre sector to meet its demand and to meet the target of 15% of electricity demand from corporate power purchase agreements by 2030.

The Sustainable Energy Authority of Ireland recently conducted a public consultation on options to deliver on this target. There have been some very encouraging signs and recent developments in the sector, with large multinationals concluding power purchase agreements, as I said earlier, directly from wind farms which will not be paid for by electricity consumers. That is the model that we need to progress, namely, that these companies would conclude power purchase agreements directly from the wind farms and that all electricity users, including data centres, will pay their fair share.