Data Centres
Dail Éireann — 2026-09-17
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Darragh O'Brien (FF), Dublin Fingal East

We have to manage the demand that is there. Ireland's demand will grow and will double between now and 2050. That is why the grid investment programme is so important, and that we improve the resilience, distribution and capacity of our grid.
To get to the kernel of the Deputy's question, no housing development has not been connected because of a data centre. PR6, which is our investment programme, outlines all the various things we need to do across the economy and society, that is, the 300,000 new homes we need to build, industrial growth, economic growth and infrastructural projects like MetroLink that we announced yesterday. That will require further electricity demand. We want to drive that through renewables. About 50% of our electricity so far this year has been generated through clean renewable sources. We have doubled our wind capacity in ten years and solar is a major part of our energy mix now as well. That said, however, large energy user demand has to be managed in a planned way and that is what the LEAP does. The large energy user, LEU, final decision from CRU ensures that happens.

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Record URI: https://data.oireachtas.ie/akn/ie/debateRecord/dail/2026-09-17/debate/main
Retrieved: 2026-09-28T05:50:48+00:00
Sitting date: 2026-09-17