Taoiseach's Meetings and Engagements
Dail Éireann — 2026-06-30
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Micheál Martin (FF), Cork South-Central

The Minister is bringing the legislation forward. It is going through the House at the moment and I presume it will be passed. It is another advance on ten to 15 decisions we have taken. Ireland was foremost in defending the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East, UNRWA, for example, when it was under real threat from some within the previous European Commission at the time. We intervened to stop the haemorrhaging of funds from UNRWA. We doubled down by doubling our contribution to UNRWA. We have done a fair bit. Most Palestinians accept that, and not only just accept it, they thank us every time we meet them. What is happening is still horrendous. The killing of innocent children and women is shocking. We cannot get agreement at European level. Different member states have different positions, and still do, in respect of the atrocities that are occurring, and continue to occur, in particular with the prevention of humanitarian aid getting into Gaza and the lack of proper implementation even of phase one of the recent peace deal and cessation of violence.
Deputy Tóibín raised data centres. Over the past five years, we have slowed down the development of data centres a lot. Data centres are vital for the digital world in which we live. That is just the reality. We have to develop significant capacity on the energy front to be able to deal with the AI revolution and further growth of any data centres.
The CRU has produced a large energy user policy. It creates a framework to allow for further data centres to be built in circumstances where they use 80% renewable energy. We are some distance away from where we were in the growth of data centres, but they are not the great evil that people, including the Deputy, portray them to be.
I did not have any discussions with President Trump about data centres. America is just ploughing ahead and getting them done in six to nine months. It is a very different scene in, for example, Texas. We have to measure this. Data centres use up a lot of electricity - the Deputy is correct about that - and there are issues, but they are also an important part of the broader technology area and in the growth of investment in the country. They cannot be dismissed. Moratoriums on their own would not be positive, but we have to proceed in a measured way from here on.
For Deputy Whitmore to conflate the LNG Bill with the visit to America-----

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Record URI: https://data.oireachtas.ie/akn/ie/debateRecord/dail/2026-06-30/debate/main
Retrieved: 2026-09-14T01:01:06+00:00
Sitting date: 2026-06-30