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

The Deputy should maybe replay my answer to the last four questions but I understand why this is an area of interest.
I thank him for tabling this question.
Our industrial electricity demand is primarily concentrated in our digital economy. I say this because we are not a large industrial nation. We do not make trains or cars. We do not have heavy industry here. Our heavy industry is ICT. Other countries in Europe have large heavy industrial bases and use energy for these. Part of our competitiveness as a country, and our attractiveness, is because of the expertise of our people and the digital economy. A critical part of supporting jobs in the economy and future growth is supporting activities such as cloud computing, artificial intelligence and financial services, right down to public sector digital services.
The economic footprint that the ICT sector brings, which I mentioned earlier, and I am talking about ICT in general, is about €104 billion in gross added value. This is about 20% of Ireland's economy. It is significant but it has to be managed appropriately. The large energy user action plan is the way forward. We will always keep it under review. It is very clear now with regard to new connections that there have already been connection agreements. As mentioned earlier, about 23% of our energy is used by large data centres and large energy users. Going forward from the adoption of LEAP, it is very clear how new connection agreements would be granted. I do not grant them; they are granted independently of me, and rightly so. It all has to be balanced.
To answer the question directly, we published the policy and adhere to it. It is constantly kept under review. My big focus as energy and climate Minister is accelerating renewables, reducing our dependence on fossil fuels and getting our bills down, while also ensuring that we can continue to attract indigenous investment and foreign direct investment.

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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