Electricity Regulation (Climate Action and Connection to Distribution and Transmission Systems) Bill 2025: Second Stage [Private Members] Dail Éireann — 2026-09-24 ============================================================ Réada Cronin (SF), Kildare North The Herbata data centre is coupled with another potentially monstrous data centre on the Jigginstown site right next door. My constituents are particularly worried about this and the impact it is going to have. The centre at Jigginstown is going to be twice the size of the Herbata one, which would make it 16 times the size of Croke Park. The Herbata data centre on is going to use three times the amount of electricity currently used by homes in Kildare. We just cannot keep up. This is unsustainable. People in Naas feel powerless . The Jigginstown centre is going to be a mere 100 m from houses and schools in the area. People are frightened at that prospect and want accountability. They expect it in a democratic society. Public participation in major connection decisions must be provided for by the Government if it is going to continue down the road of building data centres in exchange for a pat on the head from the tech bros. We have been put in a position whereby we are going to have to hold a protest on the doorstep of Kildare County Council on Monday next, 28 September, at 1.30 p.m., at which we will councillors across the county to reverse the decision to zone the land at Jigginstown for data centres. A motion in this regard is being brought forward by a Sinn Féin councillor because zoning of land is about the only power councillors have any more. I urge all those in the Kildare area to join us and show their support. In relation to the Bill before us, Sinn Féin wants to see low emissions from any connection to electricity transmission and distribution systems. We also believe in the social obligations the State has to build houses. This Bill, in its current form - I am sorry for this - could potentially lead to housing developments being rejected on the grounds that the emissions relating to them would be too high during construction. I am sure we could work on that on Committee Stage. We will be supporting the Bill. While we want to see high-quality houses that are affordable and environmentally-friendly being built. I do not think that Deputy Ahern or the Labour Party would want to see homes not built because their emissions do not meet a certain threshold. I am sure that is not the intention behind the Bill. The Bill tabled by Deputies Pa Daly and Rose-Conway Walsh and I last week would set out a statutory prioritisation for connections that are of public benefit, including housing developments, which is a better way of ensuring public need is put before data centres’ greed. We must ensure that we prioritise housing, school and hospital connections to the grid and not facilitate the insatiable quest for more AI that has been so recklessly brought to our shores by this short-sighted Government. --- 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