I offer my condolences and those of the Green Party on the death of our colleague, Seamus Carroll. Yesterday, the Joint Committee on Artificial Intelligence heard from EirGrid, ESB Networks and the CRU. They raised some of the clearest concerns yet about the impact of data centres on our grid. These are not NGOs that the Government can brush off. They are State bodies and they were warning in no uncertain terms that there are trade-offs to the level of data centre growth the Government wants to pursue. Jim Gannon from the CRU stated that large AI-focused facilities can exceed 100 MW in demand, with annual electricity consumption comparable to that of around 100,000 households.

The CRU stated that data centres could account for 35% of Ireland’s electricity demand by 2035.

The Green Party believes there should be a moratorium on new data centre connections until our grid's capacity has been expanded. Is it not time that the Government, at a minimum, set restrictions on the amount of grid capacity that data centres can use? Without safeguards, these data centres will continue to push up household energy bills, which will be a disaster for energy affordability and for our private targets.

Essentially, over the last five years, there was almost a de facto moratorium on data centres, and the exponential increase in data centres predated the last four to five years. Under the large energy user action plan, LEAP, which was published in January of this year, we are moving to a plan-led system that will provide greater certainty for industry and ensure that the cost of developing necessary additional infrastructure is borne in a manner that is fair and balanced. This has been reinforced by unprecedented grid investment. Up to €18 billion can be spent on the grid, which supports all areas that are beneficial to the economy. The 2025 CRU large energy user connection policy sets out the criteria that must be met by new data centres seeking connection to the electricity system. That policy is being implemented by EirGrid and ESBN system operators.

We need a more measured debate. There is no doubt that data centres are using significant amounts of energy, and AI is going to compound that. Are we saying that we are going to decouple ourselves from AI investment into the future? The ICT industry is a critical industry, and by that I mean ICT generally. The world we live in today depends on data centres. The issue is where they are located, but there will have to be data centres located somewhere. The issue for us is that we have to do it in a balanced way. I accept that.