Dáil Éireann Debate, Thursday - 9 December 2021
96. Deputy Catherine Connolly asked the Tánaiste and Minister for Enterprise, Trade and Employment further to Parliamentary Question No. 32 of 2 November 2021, the status of the review of the Government statement on the Role of Data Centres in Ireland’s Enterprise Strategy 2018; the timeline of the review; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [60795/21]
Amharc ar fhreagraThe Government published the new Climate Action Plan on November 4th, which addresses in detail our objective to decarbonise our economy and society. This includes a suite of actions to ensure that Ireland is planning appropriately for new energy demand in the context of our electrification and decarbonisation ambitions. We need to facilitate digitalisation across our enterprise base, while ensuring that we are cultivating reliable energy markets and infrastructure that deliver smart and competitively priced services to all electricity customers.
We will need to ensure that new electricity demands, and the growth of existing demand, are sustainable and use our infrastructure efficiently. The transformation of our electricity and wider energy system, will require innovative and world leading solutions on both the supply and demand sides of that market.
A key action in this regard is to revise the ‘Government Statement on the Role of Data Centres in Ireland's Enterprise Strategy’, first published in 2018, to reflect new electricity targets, carbon ceilings, electricity and enterprise policy, as well as recent regulatory decisions. Developments such as Eirgrid's 'Shaping our Electricity Future' analysis; the recent Commission for Regulation of Utilities (CRU) direction on data centre connection policy; as well as our carbon budgets and forthcoming sectoral emissions ceilings; can all be usefully reflected in this revised Statement on enterprise policy on data centres.
Following detailed research by SEAI on a policy framework for Corporate Power Purchasing Agreements (CPPAs), I also expect that a policy roadmap in this regard will be relevant in advance of publishing this revised Government statement.
My Department will continue to work closely with the Department of the Environment, Climate and Communications and engage with stakeholders such as Eirgrid, the CRU, IDA Ireland and the data centre sector in developing this statement. This will set out any additional measures required to ensure that the existing demand for data centre development can be managed to drive the decarbonisation of our electricity system and deliver regional economic opportunities. I anticipate that this revised Statement will be published in the first half of 2022.
