Energy Security: Statements Seanad Éireann — 2026-04-29 ============================================================ Patricia Stephenson (SD), Labour Panel Ireland has an urgent need to develop clean, resilient domestic energy infrastructure to protect communities and businesses from the ongoing global shocks we have seen recently. The shocks from recent times will continue on. This is not a once-off situation. Energy security is not just an economic concern. It is not a way to prevent future disruptions. Governments have a social obligation to ensure that everyone has access to clean, affordable and reliable energy. Relying on the importation of fossil fuels is no longer sustainable as we lurch from one energy crisis to the next. The Government has contributed to this in some ways by allowing carte blanche to developers for the development of data centres. I think 22% of our energy needs are now being used by data centres, compared with our closest neighbours on the Continent, which I think may be the Netherlands, where they are using only 2%. This is pushing up prices for domestic consumers and undermining our energy security sovereignty. It is irresponsible and reckless and it is not sustainable to keep growing. I know the moratorium was recently lifted as well. This is a disaster of a policy decision. It beggars belief that we are here having a discussion about energy security while that is happening in tandem. Earlier this year, EirGrid stated that up to 75% of our electricity generation could come from renewable energy sources but we are reaching just over half of our demand in this way. Of course, the biggest drain on this is from data centres. We are basically giving them dibs on our electricity rather than prioritising businesses and families who are in energy crisis. We have opportunities to develop energy security. Those opportunities have been wide open for years for the Government to take, but it has failed to seize them. We have untapped potential in solar but I feel the Government is blind to those opportunities and we are ignoring them. When we are exposed to so many of these external shocks, it is shocking that we are not leaning into the opportunities for solar in a more meaningful way. The Social Democrats have put forward a five-point plan on this, Solar for All, which would provide for a doubling of grants for solar panel installation and cover up to 1 million homes in Ireland. One million homes in Ireland are suitable for solar panels but do not have them, so we need a nationwide installation programme that can be rolled out quickly. We would also reinstate the €1,000 grant that can be used for battery storage. Battery storage has improved. The quality of battery storage technology in the last five years is amazing compared with what it used to be. This is a crucial way forward. The Government cut that in 2022 for some reason; I am not sure why. We also have the warmer homes scheme. We need to be targeting vulnerable households for solar under this scheme and cut electricity costs for them. That would be something like €450 a year if we gave the houses that fall under that scheme free solar panels. We also need to roll it out for businesses. The other glaring gap is the roll-out of plug-in solar. Two years ago, the Department said it would look into regulation around plug-in solar, yet we wait. In 2019, the Government said there was indeed a crisis when it came to climate, and it has taken two years to look at regulation around plug-in solar, a technology that is being used widely in other European countries. This could be plugged in to people's gardens and balconies tomorrow if we regulated for it, immediately reducing people's energy bills. It is a no-brainer. We have to speed up the response around plug-in solar. Social Justice Ireland released a statement yesterday saying that as the number of renters increases in Ireland, non-homeowners are left out of the cost-saving retrofitting schemes. It points out that many landlords are simply not motivated to retrofit properties they are renting out because they are not going to benefit directly from the energy cost savings. That is really frustrating for a lot of renters to hear. We need robust policies to ensure either that landlords are motivated to retrofit properties they are renting out or that renters can access effective renewable energy such as plug-in solar to allow them to benefit like the rest of the population. The potential for renewable energy to reduce our reliance on imported fossil fuels in Ireland is huge. This kind of domestically generated energy would bring down the cost of bills for households and businesses. It would protect us and give us a barrier from so many of the external shocks we have seen and will continue to see as the world becomes more volatile. It is often said the best time to plant a tree was a hundred years ago but that the next best time to plant one is today. There has been a missed opportunity when it comes to solar and renewable energy in Ireland. We can all point fingers and appoint blame. Today is the day to fix that and really commit to rolling it out. It is the future. We need clean energy in Ireland. We need security. We also need to put measures and protections in place for data centres. --- Source: Houses of the Oireachtas. Licensed under CC BY 4.0 (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/). The Official Report is revised after first publication; the fetch timestamp below identifies the version quoted. Record URI: https://data.oireachtas.ie/akn/ie/debateRecord/seanad/2026-04-29/debate/main Retrieved: 2026-08-14T04:54:52+00:00 Sitting date: 2026-04-29