Electricity Grid
Dail Éireann — 2026-02-24
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Darragh O'Brien (FF), Dublin Fingal East

When Sinn Féin publishes its legislation, I will certainly look at it in a constructive manner. Data centres underpin an important technology sector in this country that employs hundreds of thousands of people. We have not had a situation, nor will we, where a data centre is connected ahead of a housing development. That just does not happen. It has not happened. We need to be at the cutting edge when it comes to technology. We should not turn away either indigenous or foreign direct investment. We need to look at expanding capacity in order to accommodate that investment and deal with the increasing energy demand we have. That demand is going to increase by another 50% between now and 2035. This is why it is imperative that we invest in our grid at a rate we have never seen before and deliver projects like the North-South interconnector, on which the Deputy's party has different views north and south of the Border. The bringing forward of legislation might afford the Deputy an opportunity to clarify the position of the main Opposition party with regard to that important infrastructure.

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Record URI: https://data.oireachtas.ie/akn/ie/debateRecord/dail/2026-02-24/debate/main
Retrieved: 2026-08-14T04:54:40+00:00
Sitting date: 2026-02-24