Members of the opposition have criticised the government for their stance on data centres.
A Freedom of Information request from Sinn Féin MEP Lynn Boylan found that the government commissioned a €100,000 report on data centres, only for the government to then excise the report’s findings about potential electricity price increases for consumers.
The report discusses “the potential” for increases in electricity prices related to any grid infrastructure developments required to support further data centre development.
When the report was made public, the segment was omitted.
“Despite this clear directive, the main body of the final report fails to even mention the word “disadvantage,” ignoring the pressure that data centre expansion places on regular households and small businesses,” Boylan said.
The report coincides with Electric Ireland announcing an 8% price hike for customers, claiming that they were forced to do so owing to market conditions.
The Sinn Féin MEP said that Minister for Enterprise Peter Burke “needs to spell out exactly why this report fails to address the impact of data centres on the cost of energy.”
Boylan said, “I have been sounding the alarm for years about data centres driving up costs, whether it is the secret subsidy on household bills or the shocking disparity in network charges, where households are paying 10 times as much as data centres for grid upgrades.”
The United Nations cited Ireland’s energy grid as a “cautionary” tale, with the report saying that the Irish government are not taking the environmental impact of artificial intelligence growth into account,
Labour climate spokesperson Ciarán Ahern said that the government must end what he calls an “open-door approach” to data centres, and said that consumers should not be the one paying the bill for data centre growth.
“At a time when families are struggling with the cost of living, it is extraordinary that the government continues to ignore the consequences of its approach to data centre expansion,” the Dublin South-West TD said.
The United Nations report found that data processing now accounts for 21% of all electricity used in Ireland, five times higher than in the United States.
Ahern remarked, “instead of confronting the enormous pressures being placed on our electricity system, climate targets and household bills, Ministers appear more interested in providing political cover for continued expansion.”
“People across the country are already struggling to keep the lights on and heat their homes. The additional costs arising from the Government’s reckless approach to data centre expansion are making an already severe cost-of-living crisis even worse,” he said.
Ahern said that “the warning lights are flashing” and that the government must “act now” to introduce controls on data centre expansion.
“Continuing with business as usual is no longer an option,” he said.