I move: That Dáil Éireann: notes that: — climate change resulted in Irish temperatures in excess of 30°C in May, breaking a 29-year-old record by more than two degrees; — a United Nations report has described Ireland as a cautionary tale on the environmental impact of data centres; — the Government is implementing policies that will increase fossil fuel use, by facilitating further new data centres through the Commission for Regulation of Utilities (CRU) Large Energy User (LEU) connection policy, the introduction o…

How many jobs are attached to it?

"The Minister has his head in the cloud computing" is what my colleague might have wanted to say. I thank him for gracing us with his presence for the second half of this debate. It was disappointing that neither he nor the two Ministers of State from the Department were able to turn up for the first half. If nothing else, I am pleased that we have helped to reunite the Healy-Rae brothers over their joint passion for climate denial. It was lovely to see that collectivity back in the House. Do not say the Labour Par…

We have today been accused of being anti-growth, anti-jobs and even populist in what we are talking about, but Deputies are missing the point. We are legitimately questioning the Government's industrial strategy. Even Deputy Michael Collins accepted that we were relying too much on imported oil and gas. The Government policies, promoted by the Minister, are leading to more oil and gas dependence and undermining any chance we have of energy security, which the Government seems to say is so important. Data centres, c…

I ask the Minister for his response to findings in a recent report by Friends of the Earth that data centre energy demand added a cumulative €715 million to household electricity bills between 2015 and 2023 and could add a further €1.6 billion over the next decade; his response to a recent report from KPMG on data centres commissioned by the Department of Enterprise, Tourism and Employment; and whether he accepts the claims in that report regarding employment numbers and economic value.

I thank the Minister of State. Of course, data centres have a role in modern society. No one would dispute that, but there is an important conversation starting about the costs and benefits. The benefits must be in proportion to the costs. Many of us in this House fear that the balance is being lost here. The Friends of the Earth report spoke to the costs that data centres are adding to our energy bills. We know of the strain that they are putting on our electricity grid, and that they are undermining our decarboni…

We welcome regulation and planning in this area. Currently, 22% of our energy is going to data centres. That is going to be 30% by 2030. Even under the Government's current plans, it looks like 55% of our energy will be going towards data centres, if all the data centres that are in planning are built. What does the Minister of State believe is an acceptable proportion of our energy going to data centres? Is it 22%? Is it 30%? Is it 55%? Even 22% means we have five times more energy going to data centres than in th…

To echo those comments, this is something that has joint political support across our constituency. We have worked constructively with the Minister of State before and we welcomed his engagement on the issues related to schools in Dublin South-West. DEIS plus is clearly very welcome and many schools in Dublin South-West have already benefited from it in the first round of applications. We are asking for this for St. Dominic's school which, as Deputy Murphy said, is a fabulous school in the heart of Tallaght serving…

I thank the Minister of State for his engagement. The appeals process itself is basically based on the Primary Online Database, which is very rigid and does not really allow for any subtlety or colour to be given. Part of what we are doing today is giving the Minister of State an insight into how the school works and into the background of the students there. The school desperately needs the resources that DEIS would bring to allow it to have a well-being and a trauma teacher and an administrative deputy principal …

On 24 February 2022, the same day that Putin launched his illegal invasion of Ukraine, Russia's World Cup qualifier play-off opponents, Poland, Sweden and the Czech Republic, all announced they would refuse to play their matches on Russian soil. Three days later, those three countries announced they were all boycotting the fixtures in their entirety. These decisions were taken without the approval of FIFA. There was no hand-wringing about points deductions, world rankings or finances. They simply made the right dec…

A report published today by Friends of the Earth has found that energy demand from data centres has added three quarters of a billion euro to household bills in Ireland since 2015 and could add a further €1.5 billion over the next decade. This is the equivalent of adding a week's wages to bills for the poorest households. All of us here acknowledge that data centres are part of modern life but the circle the Tánaiste and his Government need to square is that if it is their industrial policy to continue to roll out …

We will support the Bill on Committee Stage. I echo a lot of the comments made by Deputy Daly. The Bill is not perfect, but it is an important step in strengthening the regulatory landscape here. The motion to instruct the committee relates to the amendment to increase Bord na Móna's borrowing limit, and I have no principled objection to that. I understand that borrowing limits require updating due to inflation or increases in corporate activity, etc., and from the perspective of the Department it might not be wort…

The Labour Party welcomes this Bill. A genuine success story of the previous Government was the expansion of public transport services outside of Dublin, the Local Link network in particular. It is important we build upon that progress. This Bill is largely technical but it is important in enabling us to do so. I acknowledge the progress being made but too many people are still forced to rely on their cars to get around because of inadequate public transport options in particular outside the capital. There is a rea…

We are here today to register our strong disapproval of the proposed move of an An Post sorting office from Edmondstown to Lucan across the city. This is an issue of serious concern across parties. As the Minister of State can see, there are three Deputies here from the constituency but I know the two other Deputies will have similar feelings about this. This sorting office serves people in Dublin South-West as well as Dublin Rathdown and there are Deputies and councillors in both constituencies who have serious co…

We all want to see a strong An Post, but it is important that I also recognise that it is not an entirely commercial body and that it does have a public service mandate as well. There is a lot of uncertainty around the area, whether it is staff or locals, about the future and we are getting a lot of our information second-hand. We would like to see the plan, to the extent that there is one. There are concerns about what we have heard, that collection points might be in local post offices from now on. They are locat…

I thank Deputy Stanley for bringing this important motion forward. The Labour Party will support it and I would like to take the opportunity to restate our firm commitment to the principle of military neutrality, the retention of the triple lock and our country’s continued promotion of peace and an end to war. We know the immense human cost of war. We see it on our screens every day from Gaza to Ukraine to Sudan. Aside from the profound human suffering, as our party’s environment spokesperson and this being Nationa…

I want to highlight some difficulties that Irish healthcare students face in accessing clinical placements. A constituent of mine is studying physiotherapy in the Netherlands and needs to complete specific clinical practical placements in hospitals to register with CORU to practice as a physiotherapist in Ireland. She has been trying to line up a placement since February of last year but to no avail. Tallaght hospital has told me it has received 34 placement requests since January 2025 and so far it has only been a…

I know the Taoiseach recently met with the SDLP leader, Claire Hanna, about reform of the Stormont institutions. It is something we in the Labour Party have long called for. The SDLP is calling on the UK and Irish Governments to engage in a short process of talks with parties to deliver change before the next Assembly elections. Will the Taoiseach confirm if he is considering that and if he will convene talks?

Many of the Taoiseach’s Government’s policies seem to be ignoring the fact that we are failing to meet our climate targets. We see ever-increasing fossil fuel use due to there being more data centres, more cars on our roads and more planes in our skies. We need to see the Government’s plan for how it is going to square this circle. If it is the Government's proposition that we can, basically, keep doing what we are doing and still cut our emissions as we are obliged to do, then let us see the homework. We keep aski…

We have more than our fair share.