Ar dtús báire, ba mhaith liom cúpla focal a rá faoin Teachta Michael Healy-Rae. Danny, as you are here in the Chamber, I just want to pass on my best regards to your brother and to condemn outright what happened yesterday in Dublin. I am very sorry for him, for yourself and for your family. I wish him a speedy recovery. He is a tough guy and I know he will get through it. This should not happen. It should never have happened. I just wanted to say that to you.

Ireland's industrial electricity demand is primarily concentrated in our digital economy. This is our core energy-intensive industry. Data centres are fundamental to Ireland's position as a leading global hub for digital and technology-driven enterprise. They form a critical part of the State's digital infrastructure, supporting activities including cloud computing, artificial intelligence, financial services and public sector digital services. Their economic footprint is substantial with €104 billion in gross valu…

We have to manage the demand that is there. Ireland's demand will grow and will double between now and 2050. That is why the grid investment programme is so important, and that we improve the resilience, distribution and capacity of our grid. To get to the kernel of the Deputy's question, no housing development has not been connected because of a data centre. PR6, which is our investment programme, outlines all the various things we need to do across the economy and society, that is, the 300,000 new homes we need t…

I did make reference to the Bill that Sinn Féin published yesterday. As with any Bill, from wherever in the House it comes, be that Opposition or Government, I will look at it and do so in a positive way. The network charges are set by CRU. From 2020 to 2026, the data centre sector saw an average increase of 175% in network costs. I do not set the network charges; that is just the reality. There is, though, an overall issue of affordability, which I know we will get to during the course of the morning, whereby we s…

Tá an Teachta as láthair.

I propose to take Questions Nos. 3 and 6 together. I cannot announce the budget yet but I understand that energy will be an important part of it. To deal with both the questions, we know the situation in the Middle East. That is having a serious impact on prices. That follows from the continuing illegal war in Ukraine, which has caused significant disruption to energy markets. I and the Government fully recognise the pressures the resulting high prices are placing on Irish consumers and businesses. We have introduc…

I turn first to Deputy Daly and the area of potential windfall taxes on energy companies. That is something being discussed at EU-wide level. It was discussed in Brussels when I was there earlier this month. If there is an approach on that it will probably be a pan-European approach. The Taoiseach referred to it yesterday. The last time, after the outbreak of the war in Ukraine, approximately €200 million was collected. It is not going to move the dial on energy bills, but it might give the State more in its armour…

First, we recognise that €1.4 billion of supports have been brought in already. I do not think anyone will dispute that.

I am going to get to it. We have to put it in context. That is not a small amount of money. That is a major support and marked diesel was included in that in the context of the excise reductions.

Actually, when you look at it overall it is approximately 7 cent per litre. In fairness, the question put by the Deputy relates to progress with the establishment of the scheme for construction contractors that are not covered under the other two schemes. On foot of the Deputy raising this, I will make urgent inquiries with regard to the progress on that scheme. We provided significant moneys to the haulage sector, and rightly so. I was at the Irish Road Haulage Association's conference in Killarney in the Deputy's…

I answered Deputy Daly in detail earlier on the importance of ICT to the Irish economy. I want to put that in context. We have about 190,000 people working in the ICT sector, underpinned by data centres. It is an important part of our digital infrastructure and it is part of our large industrial energy use. It has to be managed appropriately. EirGird, as transmission system operator, is responsible for the operation and planning of the electricity transmission system. EirGrid balances supply and demand continually …

First and foremost, there is no red carpet being rolled out. The Deputy has acknowledged, to be fair, the significant employment underpinned by ICT in this country - high-paid jobs, good jobs and careers paths for many of our people. Ireland is at the leading edge of new technologies and we want to remain in that place. That said, we have to manage demand and supply. That is why the grid investment programme is critical. We have to get ahead of demand projections, and we will do that through renewables. The LEAP an…

The charge that the grid is unstable is incorrect. It is not. We have to be responsible in what we say in that regard.

It might suit a certain political narrative of large energy users and big corporations against everyone else, eating up all our energy. That might play well on social media. There is a reality to managing economic growth. Why do we want to manage economic growth? For the good of our people, for jobs, for people's livelihoods, so they can pay their mortgages, so they can live well - that is why. This is part of our industrial policy. The LEAP sets out how that is done in a plan-led way. It is not a question of anyon…

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, …

Deputy Ahern is perfectly entitled to raise the issue. I welcome the fact it has been raised and note it has been raised by three of the Opposition parties. It is a matter that is appropriate for discussion. This is why, in fairness, when I came into this portfolio we looked at the situation and what existed before and moved forward with the large energy user action plan, which is a plan-led approach, looking at regions also. This is the appropriate way to do it. I mentioned to Deputy Daly earlier the PR 6 capital …

Any connection application made goes through an independent process and it can be accepted or declined. Not every connection application that is made is approved. That is a fact, and if we look at how many new data centres have been built or delivered in the past few years, there are very few. Someone referenced Sweden. If we look at Finland, it has received extremely large data centre investment, to the tune of about €20 billion. Obvious we have to step through what is appropriate and what can be managed and manag…

We are committed to supporting emissions reductions in the built environment sector across the economy. That is what Deputy Daly specifically asked in the question. We are taking action every day to implement climate mitigation measures, which also provide warmer and more comfortable homes and support energy affordability, energy security and energy sustainability for households and businesses. The EPA's latest provisional greenhouse gas emissions inventory, published in July, shows the impact this work is having. …

There were a number of supplementary questions there. The Deputy mentioned the accessibility of grants. That is what I changed earlier this year. We do not want to leave anybody behind. There are some questions later about the warmer homes scheme, which is the full 100% grant. We have done full deep retrofits, which are 100% grant-aided, for close to 40,000 homes for lower income families. That is really important. I changed the grants earlier this year to break them down and I brought in the windows and doors gran…

It is ring-fenced.