Paul Murphy: Data centres are devouring Ireland's power
Paul Murphy criticises government policy on data centres, arguing they threaten Ireland's energy supply, delay public transport projects and push up household costs. He repeats People Before Profit's proposal for a billion-euro energy levy to fund a 500 euro universal electricity credit and accuses the state of privatising power for big tech.
Policy and proposal: Paul Murphy sets out the case that data centres pay roughly half the per-unit electricity price households pay and are driving peak demand. He revisits the People Before Profit alternative budget proposal for a billion-euro levy on data centres to fund a 500 euro electricity credit for every household.
Grid capacity and public services: Murphy links the rapid growth of data centres to grid constraints in the Greater Dublin area, saying standing charges are rising to fund investment and that housing connections, electric bus charging and major projects like DART+ and Metrolink are being delayed. He cites warnings in ESB briefings and government notes about insufficient power to support these projects.
Climate and jobs: He warns that current policy allowing data centres to build private power plants risks privatising electricity supply and locking in fossil fuel use, undermining emissions targets. Murphy challenges industry job claims and highlights that the sector employs only about 1,800 people in Ireland, arguing the social and environmental costs far outweigh the benefits.
We publish thousands of recordings to make Irish politics transparent and resistant to manipulation. Spotted an error? Report it — together we are building a reliable archive of Irish politics.
Momentum is growing against data centres, against the government's slavish adherence to the policy on demands of big tech because more and more people are seeing the reality of the threats that data centres pose and are implementing right now to our environment, to our energy supply and to the cost of living. In our alternative budget last year, People Before Profit proposed a billion euro energy levy on data centres to fund a 500 euro universal energy electricity credit. The effect would be to charge data centres roughly the same amount for electricity as households pay. At the moment they pay half as much per unit as what households do. On top of that, data centres are driving up electricity prices for everybody by pushing the system into peak rates more often through their constant, insatiable demand for energy. Data centres are the main reason that standing charges are being increased to fund investment in the grid which they have completely maxed out in the Greater Dublin area. The consequence is housing developments are being stalled because they can't connect to the grid. Dublin bus haven't been able to charge new electric buses for up to three years. Vital public transport like DART+, Metrolink, Lewis are being delayed as a consequence. The ESB has warned Metrolink construction and further rectification of Dublin bus will have to rely on, quote, timed electricity connections, quote, to avoid winter peak loads. A briefing note prepared for the government's major project governance oversight group in April 2025 warned that there was insufficient power in the ESB network to support DART+. Then we hear that funding for DART+, South West and Lewis Fingal has been delayed until 2030. It doesn't take a genius to figure out why. There's no point in building the system if you can't power it because data centres are using up all of the electricity. It's embarrassing enough for the government not to be able to charge a few hundred buses but entire train and Lewis lines would expose the government's incompetence completely. Last week at the AI committee we heard we have no chance of achieving our emissions target because of government policy to allow unfettered expansion of data centres so long as they build their own power plants. It means privatising our electricity supply, enabling big tech to use fossil fuels indefinitely to power them, smashing through our climate targets. We know, despite the government's bluster, despite the nonsense about almost 900,000 jobs, listen to the industry themselves. They employ about 1,800 people in this country. 1,800. A giant empty box is coming for your job and the government calls it progress.
Thank you for downloading 🙏
If you publish this material on social media, we would be very grateful if you tagged VideoParliament. It helps us reach more people and keep building a transparent archive of Irish politics.
