Electricity Regulation (Climate Action and Connection to Distribution and Transmission Systems) Bill 2025: Second Stage [Private Members]
Dail Éireann — 2026-09-24
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Colm Brophy (FG), Dublin South-West

I welcome the opportunity to discuss the Labour Party's Private Members' Bill on electricity regulation. The Deputy mentioned it in his remarks, but I congratulate him on his first Bill in the House. Unfortunately, having given those congratulations, the Government proposes, as has been indicated, to reject the motion as we are satisfied that the CRU does not require additional powers conveyed upon it to support the furtherance of national climate objectives and that the existing statutory framework is sufficient.
The CRU's core statutory functions include, among others, regulating electricity markets, protecting energy consumers and enforcing critical energy safety frameworks. The explanatory memorandum of this Bill notes the CRU's statement in its 2025 proposed decision paper on large energy user connection policy and that the provisions of the climate action Act do not provide a sufficient legal basis to allow the CRU to explicitly mandate specific emissions reductions and offsetting measures for connection applicants. However, in this same document, the CRU states that section 9 of the Electricity Regulation Act 1999 provides the CRU with a basis to take account of renewable energy policy in the development of electricity connection policy. The subsequent publication of the CRU’s large energy user connection policy is a clear example of the CRU using the sufficient statutory powers available to it to support Ireland's climate objectives.
Under this connection policy, new data centres are required to meet at least 80% of their annual demand with additional renewable electricity generated in the Republic of Ireland. This pioneering approach by CRU that new data centre demand must be accompanied by substantial additional renewable electricity generation in Ireland is intended to ensure that rising data centre demand provides significant positive support to the achievement of Ireland's wider decarbonisation objectives.
To address this point in detail, section 15 of the Climate Action and Low Carbon Development Act 2015, as amended, provides that every public body must, so far as practicable, perform its functions in a manner consistent with: the climate action plan; national long-term climate action strategy; national adaptation framework; and approved sectoral adaptation plans; the furtherance of the national climate objective; and the objective of mitigating greenhouse gas emissions and adapting to the effects of climate change in the State. The Commission for Regulation of Utilities, CRU, is a public body to which these requirements apply and with which they actively comply.
Section 9 of the Electricity Regulation Act 1999 further provides for the CRU, in the carrying out of its duties, to have regard to a range of matters including: to promote the continuity, security and quality of supplies of electricity and promote the use of renewable, sustainable or alternative forms of energy. These legal powers, as employed in the CRU’s large energy user policy document, demonstrate that the CRU has sufficient legal competence to impose requirements on large energy users to employ emissions reduction and offsetting measures. The Bill, as proposed, therefore aims to address a perceived gap in legislation which does not, in the view of Government, exist. On this basis, the Government proposes to reject this motion.
Data centres are central to Ireland’s modern economy and play a critical enabling role across a wide range of digitally intensive sectors, enhancing the competitiveness of the Irish economy. They strengthen Ireland’s position as a strategic knowledge intensive regional hub for the ICT sector and also support broader retention and expansion of existing investment that support billions of euro in annual economic value for Ireland via high-wage employment, tax receipts and supplier ecosystems. According to independent analysis, the industry employs 19,500 people directly. Our technology sector, underpinned by data centre infrastructure, accounts for approximately 7% of our total workforce and over half of total services exports. Their value is evident and the Government remains committed to supporting sustainable data centre development as a result. It is important to note that unlike countries like the Netherlands, Germany and the UK, Ireland does not host large, energy-intensive industrial sectors. Ireland's industrial electricity demand is primarily concentrated in our digital economy. This is our core energy intensive industry. Germany and other countries consume more electricity to support their heavy industry sites like car manufacturing, steel, and chemicals.
Connecting such large energy loads is a challenge that many energy systems across the world are grappling with. In response, the Government’s Large Energy-User Action Plan, LEAP, published in 2026, sets out a plan-led approach for very large and energy intensive investments, including data centres, which, due to scale and energy consumption, will benefit from co-ordinated national infrastructure planning. The LEAP will enable Ireland to capture next generation investment in a planned and managed way and unlock significant associated economic, employment and renewable energy opportunities. Our approach will ensure that sustainability, affordability, competitiveness and energy security remain central to policy.
Through effective and focused policies and measures, we are making tangible progress towards objectives of decarbonisation, while supporting sustained economic growth for wider societal benefits. Ireland now has its lowest level of greenhouse gas emissions in 35 years. We are decoupling population growth and economic success from emissions. The Environmental Protection Agency, EPA, now projects that we are close to meeting our first carbon budget, and a reduction in emissions of between 13% and 25% by 2030. The work remains ongoing right across government to implement climate mitigation measures.
Ireland is at the forefront of transitioning to an electricity system dominated by variable renewable energy sources, such as wind and solar, and we have achieved record-breaking levels of renewable electricity generation, reducing our reliance on imported fossil fuels. Most notably, emissions from electricity generation are estimated to decrease by between 53% and 60% by 2030. Significant investment has taken place in increasing the technical flexibility of Ireland’s power system to enhance its renewable integration capabilities. The electricity system in Ireland can operate with up to 75% wind and solar at any given moment. The International Energy Agency, IEA, recognised this achievement as remarkable and a global milestone. Ireland currently has over 8 GW of renewable generation capacity, over 5 GW of onshore wind and over 3 GW of solar PV installed, with hydro, biomass and other small sources contributing the remainder.
The Government has also prioritised unprecedented investment in our grid of up to €18.9 billion, underpinned by €3.5 billion Government equity investment. This investment will ensure that Ireland's electricity grid continues to provide capacity to support the delivery of Government targets across society and the economy. This investment supports expanding our electricity generation, with a particular priority on renewable energy sources.
In addition to investment, the Government is accelerating the roll-out of renewable energy in Ireland by identifying and addressing barriers to the deployment of renewable energy through dedicated cross-sectoral expert groups. These include the accelerating renewable electricity task force, for onshore generation and the offshore wind delivery task force for offshore. These groups bring together senior officials from Departments and State agencies to identify, co-ordinate and prioritise the policies required to support the rapid development of renewable electricity generation. These investments, policies and measures demonstrate that the Government is fully committed to delivering on Ireland’s climate ambition across all sectors and to progressing climate action in a planned and coherent way.

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Source: Houses of the Oireachtas. Licensed under CC BY 4.0 (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/). The Official Report is revised after first publication; the fetch timestamp below identifies the version quoted.

Record URI: https://data.oireachtas.ie/akn/ie/debateRecord/dail/2026-09-24/debate/main
Retrieved: 2026-09-28T05:50:50+00:00
Sitting date: 2026-09-24