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

To be clear, there will be a cost recovery on private wires by those who deliver them. There will be no increase in costs. That methodology will be worked through. That will be discussed as part of the pre-legislative scrutiny that the committee will be going through tomorrow.
In the context of the advancement in renewables, if I go back 15 years, only 13% of our electricity was generated by renewables. At the end of 2024, it was over 40%. It is not the case that the increase in renewables is being gobbled up by data centres. That is simply not true. Our job is to accelerate the delivery of renewables, both solar and wind, and to get offshore into construction by the end of the decade, which we will do. That will be critical in the context of allowing us to meet our climate action obligations and targets. It can be done. Maybe not all by 2030, but there is real momentum in that space. There is real momentum across the renewables sector, both wind and solar. We are now seeing an advancement in biomethane, and work is also being done district heating. There is a lot to be positive about.

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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