Data Centres
Dail Éireann — 2026-09-17
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Brian Stanley (IND), Laois

There are a number of issues. We are trying to construct 50,000 homes per year and there were reports again this week that the supply of housing is being hampered by the supply of water and electricity connections. There is clearly a pull factor and the Government has to take into consideration that there have to be jobs in other sectors and homes have to be built. There is pressure here every day with people talking about it. We are putting pressure on the Government about it. The Government is under pressure and is putting pressure on officials and local authorities to step up to the plate and drive on the programmes.
We have to look at things in the round, but we have a habit in this country - and I do not want to give the House a history lesson going back to the crash and so on - of putting too many eggs in one basket. This is a high-profit industry. We are accepting the data centres. I agree that not all of them get planning permission, but the sheer number going in and the supply of water and electricity going into them could throw the economy off to one side and have a negative effect on other sectors. That is the key point.

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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