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

We welcome regulation and planning in this area. Currently, 22% of our energy is going to data centres. That is going to be 30% by 2030. Even under the Government's current plans, it looks like 55% of our energy will be going towards data centres, if all the data centres that are in planning are built. What does the Minister of State believe is an acceptable proportion of our energy going to data centres? Is it 22%? Is it 30%? Is it 55%? Even 22% means we have five times more energy going to data centres than in the USA. It is 20 times more than in China.
The Minister answered a question earlier on energy security, but data centre strategy is undermining our energy security by increasing the gas demand in this country. Even if only 20% of the energy going into data centres is associated with gas and not renewables, it will double the peak demand for gas in this country. Again, it is undermining the Government's other strategies.

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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