Will the Government back a plan to introduce nuclear power? Who and what are behind this latest kite the Government is flying? Is this pandering to vested interests, tech companies which want to expand data centres even further in this country? Those data centres are currently consuming about 25% of all our energy. We should not be introducing nuclear power to power data centres. I just want to nail a few lies. Nuclear is a dangerous option; it is not safe. It takes 200,000 years for the waste to become safe. Mining is dangerous. It is not carbon neutral and not sustainable. Accidents are not in the dim and distant past. There have been 57 serious nuclear accidents since 1986. Nor is it cheaper; nuclear energy is three times more expensive than renewables. The small modular reactors may lower the construction costs but they do not deal with the issue of waste. The Government is not able to build housing in this country, yet it is willing to undertake potentially going nuclear to fund multinationals and their data centres. This is a bogus argument. The Government needs to lower electricity costs and there are other ways of doing it without introducing nuclear power.

Our laws are very clear: it is illegal to create nuclear power in Ireland. Any proposal to change that would have to be done with agreement and debate, not just here in the Houses but more broadly. At the moment, there are no direct plans but given the situation in which we find ourselves on a global scale, we should not rule out discussions about things. However, the law is very clear at the moment: nuclear power is not allowed and not applicable. I know this came up yesterday. Whether it is the French interconnector which will be connected soon or even the UK interconnector, there is an element of nuclear energy that comes into Ireland. However, from an Irish perspective, I think we are a long way off even having that overall discussion.