Data Centres
Dail Éireann — 2026-06-11
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Ciarán Ahern (LAB), Dublin South-West

I thank the Minister of State. Of course, data centres have a role in modern society. No one would dispute that, but there is an important conversation starting about the costs and benefits. The benefits must be in proportion to the costs. Many of us in this House fear that the balance is being lost here. The Friends of the Earth report spoke to the costs that data centres are adding to our energy bills. We know of the strain that they are putting on our electricity grid, and that they are undermining our decarbonisation goals. What we are trying to do here is scrutinise the Government's industrial policy as much as its climate and decarbonisation strategy.
The Minister of State mentioned that data centres are important in retaining jobs and industry here, but the job figures quoted in that report were frankly embarrassing. There were 876,000 jobs linked to data centres. Was the Minister of State not at all embarrassed about that kind of figure coming out? The real figure – the Minister of State mentioned 180,000 jobs – is more like 19,500, half of which are in construction. I would like the Minister of State's response to that.

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Record URI: https://data.oireachtas.ie/akn/ie/debateRecord/dail/2026-06-11/debate/main
Retrieved: 2026-09-14T01:01:05+00:00
Sitting date: 2026-06-11