91. Deputy Darren O'Rourke asked the Minister for Climate, Energy and the Environment if he is considering building nuclear power plants in Ireland; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [26919/26]

Sentiment score: 0.10

It is clear from the last priority question, and from the comments from TDs, MEPs and the Taoiseach himself, that Fianna Fáil has gone nuclear, probably in more ways than one, in the past 24 hours. I wonder if the Government is going nuclear.

Sentiment score: 0.19

Gabhaim buíochas leis an Aire Stáit. I appreciate his response. I wonder about this new focus on nuclear energy. There has been a lot of commentary and priority questions in respect of it. I mentioned the newspaper headlines which state that the Cabinet is considering it. I am deeply concerned about this matter from a number of perspectives. The Minister of State touched on it when he referred to the waste involved, public support and, more importantly, the fact that Ireland's strength needs to be in the delivery and advancement of renewable technologies, particularly offshore wind. That is our great strength. Others have strength, well-developed for decades, in the area of nuclear energy, and we will use some of that. I do not see a contradiction in that regard. We need to play to our strengths. The real risk here is that we get distracted, go down a rabbit hole and continue to miss the really important milestones that we have to reach. That is where the focus needs to be.

Sentiment score: 0.29

On the opportunity to innovate, I had correspondence this week on how we are further developing and innovating in our existing offshore projects, and how they are coming back and refining their proposals in a really innovative, progressive and environmentally considerate way. Of course, we need to think of the potential implications of nuclear energy, particularly in terms of waste but also in the context of planning consent. We need to think about base-loading. We have renewables. We should have more and a lot more but we also need to look at battery technology. On data centres, I am fundamentally opposed to the idea that we would bring nuclear power plants here in order to further expand our data centres. The opposite needs to be the case. Our data centres need to play a helpful role in advancing our renewables and balancing our grid, not the opposite.

Sentiment score: 0.26

Not with nuclear power plants.

Sentiment score: 0.00

Not if you put a nuclear power plant beside one.

Sentiment score: 0.00