Data centres are a very important part of Ireland's economic and digital present and future, and a key part of our value proposition for foreign direct investment. Data centres bring wider economic benefits, as most understand. They bring tax revenues, employment, broader digital infrastructure value and significant support and linkages provided to other high-value sectors of the economy. The recent KPMG study on data centres, undertaken on behalf of the Department of Enterprise, Tourism and Employment, reports there are 19,500 directly employed in the industry. As detailed in our large energy user action plan, LEAP, Ireland's technology sector, underpinned by the very digital infrastructure in data centres, accounted for employing almost 183,000 people in quarter 4 of 2024. This is equivalent to 7% of Ireland's total workforce. Unlike other European countries that have heavy industry bases, Ireland's industrial electricity demand is primarily concentrated in our digital economy. This is our core energy intensive industry. I note the contents of the cited UN University report on Al energy, particularly on the need for responsible and informed capacity planning of the power system. The Government has for a long time recognised that data centres and their energy consumption need to be managed and planned appropriately. This is why we brought forward the Government's large energy user action plan in January 2026. It sets out a plan-led approach for very large and energy intensive investments. This will enable Ireland to capture next generation investment in energy intensive industries and unlock significant associated economic and employment opportunities. The Commission for Regulation of Utilities, CRU, is responsible for grid connection policy and is accountable to a committee of the Oireachtas, not to me as Minister. Changes to connections policy, including those proposed in the cited document of the EU Commission, are a matter for CRU.

Sentiment score: 0.30

I welcome the fact that Deputy Daly recognises the importance of ICT, digital infrastructure and data centres. This is something on which most will agree. The most critical parts of this are the large energy user action plan and the CRU decision on large energy users, both of which are from last year. Both clearly set out what is required for a new data centre or a large energy user connection. This means for a new data centre to get an energy connection it is required to get 80% of its energy through new renewable sources. There is a plan-led approach. There is also the grid investment through PR6, which is critical for all of our industries and housing. This is the €18.9 billion investment to 2030 and beyond. It is absolutely critical. We need to ensure that we remain at the cutting edge of new technologies. As I mentioned, digital infrastructure is our large industrial base. Unlike many other European countries we are not a large manufacturing country. This is something we need to protect. We have not had a situation where any housing has not been connected due to the growth in our economy.

Sentiment score: 0.19

I assure Deputy Daly they do not dictate the system. Connection policy is a matter for CRU, which is independent of me, which the Deputy knows. Grid investment is critical and we are doing that. Grid resilience is absolutely critical and this is why it is imperative that projects such as the North-South interconnector start and are completed as quickly as possible. I have already outlined what we are doing with regard to large energy users and we have published our plans in this regard. We also need to increase grid capacity and generation. What we have done in a ten-year period, when we look at generation of energy, is we have doubled wind capacity and there has been more than a 1,000% increase in solar, with a very good pipeline coming forward for more than 8 GW in renewables. This is where we need to get to. We need to ensure we are accelerating the deployment of renewables into our system and investing in our grid to make sure that grid resilience is there. There are backups to ensure the grid remains safe, such as fault ride through, which is there for large energy users also. This policy is one that is agreed by CRU in consultation with stakeholders.

Sentiment score: 0.23

In March 2025, I received Government approval to develop a State-led strategic gas reserve. The delivery of a strategic gas reserve is critical to Ireland's energy security as we transition to indigenous, clean, renewable energy. Crucially, the strategic gas emergency reserve will also ensure compliance with EU standards and regulations and is consistent with our climate action plan. The State-led, transitional nature of the reserve ensures that the risk of stranded fossil fuel assets is mitigated, that the reserve will be used for emergency use only, and that it does not support increased gas demand with a view to minimising impacts on greenhouse gas emissions. The Government remains committed to taking decisive action to radically reduce our reliance on fossil fuels and has greatly boosted the share of renewables in our increasingly electrified energy system. This, however, means greater reliance on gas to provide sufficient flexibility and backup for secure electricity supplies at times of low renewable output. In line with the programme for Government priority, the approval to proceed with the strategic gas emergency reserve commits to exploring all opportunities to expedite delivery of the project. The gas reserve Bill that Deputy Whitmore asked about provides for an expedited consenting pathway to allow the next stage of delivery of the project. The Bill is being finalised, having completed pre-legislative scrutiny in February 2026, with a view to being completed, I hope, in this session. I will introduce it in this session and it is my intention to seek Government approval this month to publish the text of the Bill and to present the Bill to the Houses of the Oireachtas at the earliest opportunity thereafter. The general scheme of the legislation underpinning the operation of the strategic gas emergency reserve will be brought forward later this year. There will be two pieces of legislation, as Deputy Whitmore knows.

Sentiment score: 0.28

I have been very clear that we need this reserve on a temporary basis. We have an oil reserve but we have no gas reserve. It is a significant risk to our energy security in this country. I have a lot of time for the former Minister, Eamon Ryan. I worked very well with him. On this item I do not agree with him and I say that in a very respectful way. It is a risk that needs to be mitigated and that cannot be ignored. That is why, very early in this Dáil term, I set aside that policy decision with agreement from the Government. Very clear legal advice was received, twice, in relation to the energy security report, with a particular focus on this idea of banning certain types of gas. The legal advice stated that was not possible, not feasible and not legal, end of story. This needs to be done for our energy security and it is consistent with our climate action plan. I fully respect Eamon Ryan. He did a very good job across the portfolio. In this area, my job is to mitigate risk and protect our State, and this is why I am bringing this forward.

Sentiment score: 0.31

The reality is that we are building more interconnections. We are building the Celtic interconnector now. I signed a further memorandum of understanding, MOU, with Spain in relation to exploring opportunities to have another electricity interconnector to continental Europe. In the meantime, we are accelerating the deployment of renewables. I agree with the former Minister, Eamon Ryan, and that is what we are doing. In relation to storage, in our grid alone, we have over 1 GW of long-duration battery storage. This is the third highest capacity in the European Union. We do, however, need to do more. This will deal with demand flexibility and reducing dispatch down rates and allow us to be able to deploy our energy, and particularly renewable energy sources, at times when the wind is not blowing and the sun is not shining. It will be possible to store that energy and then deploy it. This facility will be used temporarily. It is to mitigate risk should something happen to our gas pipelines to Scotland. We only produce 20% of the gas that we use now and import 80%.

Sentiment score: 0.09

The Deputy is going to tell me what I am going to say now. The household energy price index, HEPI, report, which is referenced in the Deputy's written question, although he did not mention it in his remarks, tracks energy prices across European capital cities. When adjusted for purchasing power standard, PPS, this report shows that Dublin was the ninth highest for electricity prices in May 2026 and the 14th highest for gas prices. The report notes that purchasing power standards are an approach that eliminates general price level differences between countries. Meanwhile, the latest data from Eurostat, which compares electricity prices across the EU, shows Ireland ranked fifth highest for electricity prices and eighth highest for gas prices among European countries in purchasing power parity terms. That is still too high. I do not deny that at all. It is important to note, however, that price setting is a commercial and operational matter for each energy supplier. Retail prices are influenced by several factors, including wholesale energy prices, system operational costs and supplier hedging. We are deeply aware, however, of the pressures placed on households and businesses by high energy costs. We have taken a number of steps to support households and businesses facing those increased costs. This includes the €750 million package of fuel supports announced in March, which is the largest per capita of any EU state. Budget 2026 had a range of other measures. These included the extension until 2030 of the 9% VAT rate currently applied to gas and electricity bills. There were also enhanced social protection payments, including an increase to the fuel allowance rate and an expansion of the eligibility rules, which applies to about a quarter of Irish households, and a record allocation of €640 million in Sustainable Energy Authority of Ireland, SEAI, retrofitting schemes. Those schemes are critically important. Since 2019, we have invested over €1.8 billion in retrofitting and we have been able to provide energy upgrades for 268,000 homes. These upgrades protect those homes and families from energy shocks and reduce their costs and energy consumption.

Sentiment score: 0.22

I am going to mention the work being done by the national energy affordability task force. I will report on that in July. That will give options for further changes and will feed into budgetary deliberations. I am not writing anything off regarding the budget. I will wait to receive that report. In the meantime, however, we have to ensure we accelerate the retrofitting programme I spoke about. If we look at solar, for argument’s sake, over 112,000 homes in this country now have solar systems. This reduces their bills permanently. It is also good for our climate as well as being good for people’s pockets and household bills. We want to keep accelerating this development. Our continued overdependence on imported fossil fuel means we are going to continue to be over-reliant on them until we reach the tipping point on renewables. This means we will be at risk of volatility in the international fossil fuel markets. We are making good progress in this regard. About 50% of our electricity, month on month, is generated by renewables. We need to get that figure up to 80%. This is why we need to continue to accelerate the progress. I am not writing anything off for the budget. We will decide that as a Government. The national energy affordability task force will conclude its work in July in advance of the budget.

Sentiment score: 0.14

Who was that?

Sentiment score: 0.00

I have specifically asked the CRU to look at that pass-on of wholesale price reductions to retail, and that gap. I have written to the commission specifically on that matter to say it is something I want looked at. I am writing nothing off. I am not suggesting for a moment that the measures in the last budget were going to soften the blow of all price increases. They did not but they helped. We are going to seek to help again where we can. We need to consider structural reform. I assure the Deputy, with regard to offshore renewables, that the only delay has been on the planning side. I am hopeful that we will get two planning decisions through this year and that we can move towards construction in this decade. That is what I have always said. The original plan was electrification by 2030. That was not possible because of delays in the planning process. That is why I brought forward, in the term of the last Government, the Planning and Development Act, which, I remind the Deputy, his party opposed at the time. We will be working on measures in advance of the budget, and that will be informed by the final national energy affordability task force report.

Sentiment score: 0.15

I propose to take Questions Nos. 5 and 6 together. We are committed to delivering on Ireland's responsibility to address the climate crisis, and work remains ongoing right across government, not just in my Department, to implement climate mitigation measures every single day of the week. My priority is driving implementation, particularly on high-impact measures with multiple societal and economic benefits. Last month, the Environmental Protection Agency, EPA, launched its latest greenhouse gas emissions projections to 2030, which show that we are moving in the right direction and improving our performance compared with the previous year. For the first time, the EPA now projects that we are close to meeting our first carbon budget, following a consistent trend of improving projections for that budget over recent years. It is important to remember that in 2018, under existing measures, emissions were projected by the EPA to increase by 4% by 2030 because of population growth and economic growth, and that additional measures would reduce emissions by just 1%. Now, it is projecting a decrease in emissions of between 10% and 25% by 2030, which I welcome. What we have been able to do is to decouple economic growth from emissions growth. We are seeing emissions reduce across many sectors while our population is growing and our economy is growing. We now have the lowest level of greenhouse gas emissions in 35 years, which is notable, given, as I mentioned earlier, we have 1.5 million more people in our country than we had then. More than 1 million new homes have been added since then. We also have over 1 million extra vehicles on our roads. As I mentioned, the important thing is decoupling growth from emissions. We are now world leaders in renewable energy. We have a higher rate of renewables integrated into our grid than any European state. We are more than halving the emissions in our electricity system, which is significant, and are now projected to reduce that by between 53% and 60% by the end of the decade. Emissions in agriculture are set to decrease by between 4% and 19% and emissions in transport are set to decrease by between 16% and 28%. The EPA report shows that a significant increase in electric vehicles, EVs, last year has led to a significant change in the projections for emissions in the transport sector and we are seeing in the first five months of this year a further ramping up of EVs, in particular. Of course, we need to do more. I want to focus on the most impactful measures. That is why when I bring forward the climate action plan over the coming period, it will be more focused on the most impactful measures and will report on the ones that make the biggest difference. We need to try to bridge the gap to the target that has been set for greenhouse gas emission reductions by 2030. I have said in this House, and have said publicly elsewhere, that we will not reach that target by 2030 but we are moving towards it very well. We can get to that target in the early 2030s. For us in government, and indeed all of us in the House, it is about looking at the measures that we can take now, such as those we have discussed this morning, particularly the acceleration of renewables, the electrification of our country across sectors and the retrofitting of our homes and businesses. We must continue with the pipeline of projects we have, particularly offshore, and get them to construction. We have seen from one year's projections to the next improvements. That is good. They are not enough to reach our overall target by 2030 but across sectors, we are moving towards the target significantly.

Sentiment score: 0.20

I would not dismiss what the EPA says and I have not done so. I welcome the work it does. We are taking measures that have been agreed at Cabinet and among Government members and TDs, such as Deputy Boland, who support the Government. We have changed the retrofitting grants, which has made a massive difference not only from a climate perspective in reducing energy use but also in terms of cost and affordability. Since the changes I brought forward in the first quarter of this year, there has been a doubling. There have been over 50,000 applications to the Sustainable Energy Authority of Ireland, SEAI, for home retrofitting and bringing about that retrofitting passport, to which Deputy Daly also referred, which means that you can break up the grants and make them more accessible. We are seeing people respond to that now, which is good. I want to see more of that. Nearly €670 million has been allocated to that. I want that money invested and spent. Over 264,000 homes have now had energy upgrades. That is very good for climate, good for reducing emissions and very good for household budgets. There were approximately 5,000 business grants last year. I am working on measures to make those business grants more accessible, too. I brought in another €40 million this year for EVs. There has been a substantial increase in the number of registrations of EVs. I have ring-fenced €10 million for the scrappage scheme. I have been clear that it is a pilot scheme. We want to see how it works. If it is over-subscribed, it is a success. We want to get cars that are 13 years old or older off the roads. I have ring-fenced 65% of that funding for rural areas, which I said I would. Friends of the Earth and others have welcomed the focus on rural areas in particular. I will monitor that. If the scheme is open for one, two or three months and is fully expended, we will go back and look at it again. That is just an example of the type of measures we are looking to bring forward. Underpinning all of it is the acceleration of renewables. I will come back in with a supplementary contribution.

Sentiment score: 0.22

I thank both Deputies. I will try to deal with both of their interventions. Deputy Boland can be assured that everything we do is to try to accelerate the actions we are taking in relation to climate. It is the number one crisis worldwide. Ireland, as a country, has shown that it is able to pivot and change quite quickly. I used the example earlier that we have doubled wind capacity in under ten years. In 2015, there was 2 MW of solar energy in our system. By the end of this year, there will be 3 GW. What does that mean? Just 1 GW is enough to power 500,000 homes. That is where solar has moved quickly. We are seeing a rooftop revolution and well over 120,000 homes with solar panels. I completely agree about public transport. That is where the national development plan that we all agreed is important. One euro of every four invested between now and the end of this decade is being invested in transport. There is a public transport deficit that we need to catch up with and address with major projects that the Deputy and I are aware of. In the year before last, which is the last full year for which we have figures, there were 365 million public transport passenger journeys. People are responding. We need to accelerate projects. We regularly discuss the need to get new services in place. The Deputy can be assured that we will do that. The rural focus on electric vehicles is something Deputy Daly has been calling for. I have also, as part of the additional funding I have brought forward, reduced the value of cars for which grants are applicable from €60,000 to €50,00 because I do not want to grant-aid luxury cars. We want to focus on middle income families and families who actually need that assistance. Under the scrappage scheme, the grant is €8,500. New EV cars can now be bought for close to €20,000. I will not mention which brands; people can have a look. There are good cars available there. I will keep an open mind on second-hand cars but we need to do this through dealerships for certification and application reasons. It is something we will continue to look at.

Sentiment score: 0.10