Rural TDs have hit out at promises to ‘review’ Ireland’s energy security amidst an escalating crisis and concerns at potential blackouts as winter approaches.
Cork South West TD, Michael Collins said that the fragile electricity supply faced by the country was due to Ireland being the “worst prepared European country” in relation to energy scarcity, and that comments made by an Taoiseach rang “hollow” and were “removed from reality”.
Failure to curb growing data centre electricity usage, as homes, farms, and SMEs face blackouts due to surging demands, highlights how this government is completely captured by the lobbying power and influence of foreign multinational corporations and tech giants, Deputy Collins said.
“Despite our fragile electricity supply, the government allowed data centres to increase their power demand by 32% alone over a twelve-month period in 2021, and by a massive 144% between 2015 and 2020, according to the CSO. This means 70 data centres now gobble up 14% of Ireland’s total electricity and are likely to reach 29% by 2028, as existing centres use more electricity and new ones are added to the grid, according to Eirgrid,” he continued.
“Against this backdrop, the Taoiseach last month announced no moratoria on these energy-intensive IT facilities, which also enjoy low taxes here. Ironically, this is occurring when the government is banning sales of petrol and diesel cars in favour of EVs and pushing people towards electric heat pumps to heat homes. Cumulatively, the additional electricity demand driven by government policy will almost certainly result in more frequent blackouts and costlier electricity in the years ahead.”
“Consequently, the government’s reckless and disjointed energy policies all point to looming catastrophic energy shortages in this country, as warnings come in from energy experts, the regulator, and Eirgrid.”
“This crisis is so dire that the country will likely be forced to curb or ration electricity usage to prevent power cuts in the winter months as temporary emergency generators have not been delivered, due to a complete lack of planning and any degree of government urgency.”
“My group colleagues and I moved a Dail PMB motion earlier this year, aimed at addressing Ireland’s lack of energy security, especially in the event of a crisis.”
“For instance, Ireland now has no gas storage, with the Kinsale gas field depleted. The government had the option to use that field as a gas store, by pumping gas in during the summer months when demand is low, ensuring that a secure backstop was available in case of crisis. Instead, the storage infrastructure was allowed to be dismantled, underlining the utter lack of strategic planning on the part of the government.”
“Other EU countries, including Germany, are busily filling their gas storage at the moment, where they have 100 days’ gas storage. Meanwhile, Austria has nearly a year’s gas storage. Meanwhile, our government, at the very end of the gas pipeline, chose to ignore every warning, undermining our energy security and having no storage capacity whatsoever. This is now one of the greatest risks facing Ireland today.”
“Furthermore, we are the only country in Europe with a coastline that does not have a liquid natural gas import facility. It would have provided us with an alternative option to the pipelines through the UK. The government chose not to have LNG, despite natural gas providing over 50 percent of the electricity in Ireland, according to statistics from EirGrid.”
“Thus, we are calling for an urgent Dail debate on our electricity security when it resumes in September. We are also calling for the Taoiseach to emerge from hiding behind another report on these issues and make a public statement outlining how his government will cease the ‘red carpet’ treatment for data centres and do something tangible to address our energy security and demand crisis,” concluded Deputy Collins.