Data Centres

2. Deputy Jennifer Whitmore asked the Minister for Climate, Energy and the Environment if he will commission a report into the number of data centres the Irish energy grid and water networks can handle. [65223/26]

My question is very simple. Will the Minister commission a report into the number of data centres the Irish energy grid and water networks can handle? It is incredible we are in 2026 still asking for a simple report on the capacity of the energy and water systems to handle the huge increase in data centres over the past ten years.

I answered Deputy Daly in detail earlier on the importance of ICT to the Irish economy. I want to put that in context. We have about 190,000 people working in the ICT sector, underpinned by data centres. It is an important part of our digital infrastructure and it is part of our large industrial energy use. It has to be managed appropriately. EirGird, as transmission system operator, is responsible for the operation and planning of the electricity transmission system. EirGrid balances supply and demand continually while also planning for Ireland’s long-term electricity needs. Ireland has attracted some of the best tech companies in the world and some of the best data centres in the world. When considering their impact, we need to weigh wider economic benefits, including tax revenues, employment, broader digital infrastructure value and significant support and linkages provided to other high-value sectors of the economy. The Government and I recognise the need to balance those opportunities with the challenges being faced and we continue to work with the sector towards a secure and decarbonised energy future. The large energy user action plan, LEAP, which we published in January of this year, sets out a plan-led approach to planning to sustainable new energy intensive industrial developments. That is critical. Through LEAP, a range of large energy user development scenarios, including spatial considerations, will be assessed to inform policy choices going forward and to support a more integrated approach to a plan-led energy system across the system operators, the regulator and Government. Water usage management and conservation across commercial and industrial - that is, non-domestic - sectors, including data centres, is under the remit of Uisce Éireann. Uisce Éireann has advised that, overall, data centres are not a major driver of demand on the public water supply network. It is my understanding that they account for, on average, less than 0.3% of the water supplied by Uisce Éireann.

We have seen incredible growth in data centres. In 2015, 5% of our electricity use was by data centres. It is now 23%, is projected to grow to 30% in the coming years and will continue to grow even further than that. I know the Minister's and Government's argument for the red carpet being rolled out for data centres relates to the economic benefits they bring. However, the report the Government came out with in relation to that was essentially a work of fiction. The Minister talks about how many people work in the ICT sector here and says that is why we need so many data centres. That also is fiction because Sweden has the highest proportion of its workforce working in the ICT sector at 9%, yet only 3% to 4% of its electricity use is by data centres. Ireland has 6% of its workforce in ICT, which is significant and I am not understating it, but it does not mean we have to allocate 23% of our electricity use to that sector. Where is the comparability with what is happening in Europe? We are way off the scale with data centres.

First and foremost, there is no red carpet being rolled out. The Deputy has acknowledged, to be fair, the significant employment underpinned by ICT in this country - high-paid jobs, good jobs and careers paths for many of our people. Ireland is at the leading edge of new technologies and we want to remain in that place. That said, we have to manage demand and supply. That is why the grid investment programme is critical. We have to get ahead of demand projections, and we will do that through renewables. The LEAP and the large energy user decision published by CRU are critical because any new connection will only be provided to a data centre or large user in that space who brings forward 80% of the energy through additional, renewable sources. That will be managed in a plan-led way. We published that earlier this year. That is the policy. It is not that anyone who applies to be connected gets connected. That is not the way it is done. That has been changed.

The LEAP would enable, potentially, 50% of our electricity to go to data centres in the coming years. While the Minister said 80% has to come from renewables, there is a six-year path to that happening. In those six years, they can be based on gas. Data centres are pushing up our energy prices, they are making our grid unstable and they will make it impossible to meet our climate targets, which should be a concern to the Minister. That risks us having to pay €28 billion in fines. There is no point in the Minister shaking his head. That is what will happen unless the Minister knows something different. Has he been told by Europe those fines will not be imposed on countries that have not met their targets? We have to work on the assumption there is a €28 billion fine coming our way in 2030. The Minister is playing chicken with the EU on this. If it makes us pay it, we will be in serious trouble.

The charge that the grid is unstable is incorrect. It is not. We have to be responsible in what we say in that regard.

We have had a series of brown-outs over the past number of years.

It might suit a certain political narrative of large energy users and big corporations against everyone else, eating up all our energy. That might play well on social media. There is a reality to managing economic growth. Why do we want to manage economic growth? For the good of our people, for jobs, for people's livelihoods, so they can pay their mortgages, so they can live well - that is why. This is part of our industrial policy. The LEAP sets out how that is done in a plan-led way. It is not a question of anyone rocking up and, as the Deputy puts it, a red carpet is put out. That is not true. That does not happen. I take it the Social Democrats want to see continued investment in our country. Maybe they do not but we do. We have to accelerate the delivery of grid infrastructure, which we are doing through PR 6. That will enable us to get ahead of demand projections. That is the reality. There is no cost of compliance agreed with the EU and no formula. None of that is agreed. Anyone bandying around figures of €20 billion or €28 billion is just incorrect.