I thank the Labour Party for tabling this motion, and I will deal with elements of it in my response. I have been struck by many of the responses, many of which have been constructive and well-meaning. Others have not been. Turning specifically to Deputy Danny Healy-Rae, climate change is real and is happening now. The science is indisputable and climate action is critically important to counter climate change. Climate action is also important because it affords us great opportunities here. There are great opportunities in the context of climate action in relation to new technologies for the electrification of our country, which will make us more competitive and reduce our dependence on fossil fuels. Even if one were to argue, therefore, which I never would, that fossil fuels do not impact the climate, which they do, Ireland is still too dependent on imports of fossil fuels. To state the very obvious, we are an island nation. We have low interconnection rates. We import 80% of our gas from our nearest neighbour. We produce the other 20%. What do we need to do? We need to accelerate the deployment of renewables. I will return to this aspect later in my remarks. We have tabled a countermotion. I do not do that lightly, but there are elements in the Labour Party motion that I profoundly disagree with. It is interesting that things like the airport cap were thrown into this debate. As someone who represents an airport constituency, I remember a time when the Labour Party was a supporter of airport workers. Even in advance of the debate on the Dublin Airport (passenger capacity) Bill 2026, it is clear that this is not a side that the Labour Party is taking any more, which is regrettable. If I take the example of the airport, and I will move on to data centres and ICT in a moment, 130,000 direct and indirect jobs derive very good incomes from Dublin Airport alone. We are growing Shannon, Cork and Ireland West airports as well, so it is not just one instead of the other. I do not think anyone can argue that an 18-year-old planning condition is appropriate and serves Ireland well right now. I agree with much of what Deputy Michael Healy-Rae said in that regard. I ask people to reflect on this issue. It does not set aside environmental considerations either. That is purely incorrect in the motion. I ask people to look at the legislation. An Coimisiún Pleanála will be the organisation that evaluates the environmental assessments and not me as the Minister. This change needs to happen if we are serious about growth in jobs and protecting our connectivity and competitiveness. This needs to happen, and I would warn against a move towards populism in that regard. On energy pricing, I was at the Energy Ireland conference earlier, so the Minister of State, Deputy Ardagh, took the first half of the debate but I listened to it on the way back. Many Deputies threw out this figure of there being 500,000 households in energy arrears. That is not correct. What was reported on RTÉ was not correct, and it took it quite a while to even correct it. The Commission for Regulation of Utilities actually called that out. Arrears are too high and energy prices are too high, and we need to get them down. I do not dispute that at all. All that has been done to get that 500,000 figure, though, is adding the figures for gas arrears to those for electricity arrears. Unfortunately, many households are across both, so saying 500,000 households are in arrears is just not true, and the record should be corrected on this. It should have been corrected on our national broadcaster but it was not because it did not suit its narrative. Everyone in arrears is counted from the first day, from day one when a bill is not paid. When we look at the figures for those who have been 90 days in arrears, and we do need to help people to get out of that situation, we are looking at about 8% of electricity customers, which amounts to 184,000 households. It is still too high, absolutely, but let us deal with the facts and not go down that route of effectively looking at the bigger figure because it will get more prominence. It is good that we are having a discussion, particularly on data centres and ICT. It is a pity Deputies Paul Murphy and Coppinger are not here. They are always giving very constructive remarks here in the Chamber. They opposed the climate Act, by the way, which has been able to ensure that Ireland is moving towards meeting those climate obligations that we have. On data centres, Ireland is not a large industrial nation. We do not make cars or military equipment and do not have large industrial companies. We do, however, have a substantial ICT sector employing just short of 200,000 people. It is around 185,000 people. The figure is 19,000 people in the data centres, but they support all those other jobs at the leading edge of technology. Many of our young people are the best in the world at this. We need an infrastructure that supports that, and data centres are part of that. When people say 22% of our energy is used by data centres, that is correct. If we went to Germany, however, we could ask how much energy there is used for large industrial developments, including car manufacturing and all those various things.

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That is why we brought forward the large energy user action plan and the decision of CRU in relation to large energy users. It is a plan-led approach going forward. Any new data centre connections will have to be on the basis of using 80% renewables - new renewables, not existing renewables. This idea that existing renewables will be used up is not correct. We need that plan-led approach. I support the ICT sector, new jobs and new technologies. It is good for us as a country and a small, open economy. We cannot be complacent about that. The idea that we would pull the shutters down again on this area is not correct, but it has to be done in a planned way. I agree with many contributors from the Opposition who have said this. The question now is how we can continue to protect families and businesses in the short term. Retrofitting is critical. Many people, including Deputy Healy, were talking about middle-income families being able to access grants. That is why I have specifically brought forward the retrofitting passport for households and broken down the grants such that we are not just doing deep retrofits but are allowing for the inclusion of windows and doors, attic insulation, wall cavity insulation and all those different things, including solar at scale as well. If we go back to when we started retrofitting, about 268,000 homes across the country have now been retrofitted to different degrees. That protects them to a large degree against future price shocks, reduces their energy usage, reduces their emissions and makes them warmer and more efficient. We need to accelerate that. In the first quarter of this year, 12,000 homes were upgraded under the scheme, including 1,500 under the warmer homes scheme for those at risk of energy poverty. Since the formation of this Government, 70,000 homes have been retrofitted. The purpose of the change in the grants is to ensure that households can access them. We have seen an absolutely incredible response, with over 50,000 applications in the first four months of this year, including significant applications for solar. We want to do more with regard to batteries. That is the position on households. Five thousand businesses have been retrofitted. Of course, we can do more, but we are targeting 73,000 households to be retrofitted this year. It will be the largest number done in any given year. We are actually building up a really good domestic sector and domestic expertise, with new Irish companies, particularly in our rural areas. This really speaks to regional development. What are we doing at a national level regarding our grid and energy? We have now reached a really significant figure of 8 GW of renewable energy integrated into our system. Yes, of course we need to do more. One gigawatt powers about 500,000 homes. That is what we are talking about. Our wind capacity has doubled in ten years. We have added 5 GW of renewables in just a ten-year period. The figure for solar will probably be 3 GW by the end of this year alone, with over 1 GW from rooftop solar. We want to continue to support households in this regard. I am considering measures with regard to domestic batteries. I have asked the ESB to examine the whole area of balcony or plug-in solar, as it is called. These are things that are critically needed. What is also critically needed is investment in our grid. For argument's sake, I will use the example of a capital project that should have been completed already and that needs to be completed without delay, namely, the North-South interconnector. There have been four reviews of the interconnector, including in respect of whether it should be underground or overground. The reviews are done now. There are no more and it needs to happen. Three local authorities need to discharge the planning consents and we need to get building it. I returned from a conference this morning with my colleague in the North, Caoimhe Archibald. The Executive in the North is in absolute agreement on this as well. This one piece of infrastructure will do more for the resilience of our electricity grid than any other project, and that needs to start. I expect cross-party support, from both the Government and Opposition, to commence work on this and to deliver the project by 2031, which is still exacting. That will deliver affordability. On offshore wind, the target was 5 GW by 2030, as Deputy Gogarty mentioned. There have been planning consent delays all the way through. We hope to have positive planning decisions on two projects this year. My target is to get them to construction this year. That would be a game-changer for us. I absolutely agree in this regard. In the meantime, we need more onshore wind and more onshore solar. To answer the questions some Deputies have raised about the wind energy guidelines, the revised guidelines will be published and made available this year. I get the point in that regard. The revised guidelines will be produced this year through the work I am doing with the Minister for Housing, Local Government and Heritage, Deputy Browne. I thank Labour Party colleagues for the motion. This has been a decent debate. I will not be accepting the motion but I look forward to continuing to work with the Deputies on a constructive basis.

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