Data Centres
Dail Éireann — 2025-12-18
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Timmy Dooley (FF), Clare

It is. Deputy Murphy made the point that gas is the basis of his argument. We have to accept that as we work towards bringing more renewables onto the grid, we just cannot stand still, bury our heads in the sand and watch data centres and tech companies and the investment associated with them go elsewhere. If that happened, our society would be left behind, our economy would be in trouble and we would not be able to invest in services, hospitals or whatever else.
We have to have a balanced approach, while also keeping to our trajectory in the context of eliminating fossil fuels. We have a very clear plan for bringing renewables onto the grid by 2040. We are now moving ahead with a plan-led approach. We recently held the auction for 900 MW of offshore renewable energy at the Tonn Nua site. We intend to continue with that at pace. However, gas has to be a transition fuel as we work our way through the process.

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Record URI: https://data.oireachtas.ie/akn/ie/debateRecord/dail/2025-12-18/debate/main
Retrieved: 2026-08-14T04:54:29+00:00
Sitting date: 2025-12-18