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

First and foremost, there is no red carpet being rolled out. The Deputy has acknowledged, to be fair, the significant employment underpinned by ICT in this country - high-paid jobs, good jobs and careers paths for many of our people. Ireland is at the leading edge of new technologies and we want to remain in that place. That said, we have to manage demand and supply. That is why the grid investment programme is critical. We have to get ahead of demand projections, and we will do that through renewables. The LEAP and the large energy user decision published by CRU are critical because any new connection will only be provided to a data centre or large user in that space who brings forward 80% of the energy through additional, renewable sources. That will be managed in a plan-led way. We published that earlier this year. That is the policy. It is not that anyone who applies to be connected gets connected. That is not the way it is done. That has been changed.

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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