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LAST UPDATE | 11 Jun
ENERGY MINISTER DARRAGH O’Brien has said it is not a “binary choice” between providing energy for data centres and housing.
In an interview with The Journal, O’Brien dismissed comments made by the secretary general of his own Department of Environment, Climate and Energy, Oonagh Buckley, who told an event last week:
“We’re having to even think about prioritising what is the social need of the demand [for energy] — is it housing or is it AI? We’re going to have to think much more about managing demand.”
In response, the minister said:
“It’s not a binary choice. It’s not a choice between one or the other. We’ve got to manage the demands that are there between housing and investment.”
Ireland is the data centre capital of the world with 89 data centres located across the country. More data centres are on the way, with nine pending applications on the books.
O’Brien made no apologies for the high number of centres, stating that the government has been very clear that when it comes to “new technologies, including data centres, that we want to see further investment in this area”.
“Ireland has been successful as a country in attracting this investment and it’s been very significant,” he said.
As reported by The Journal Investigates last week, data centres are often located close together in business and industrial parks on the outskirts of Dublin, resulting in these energy-demanding buildings putting further strain on the electricity grid.
Just yesterday, the Central Statistics Office (CSO) reported that metered electricity consumption by data centres increased by 10% in 2024.
O’Brien said his big focus is grid investment, stating that this will meet the needs of both housing and data centres.
“We’re going to ramp up significantly that investment in our grid infrastructure,” he said, confirming that up to 2030, large energy users with connection agreements, like data centres, will continue to be allowed to connect to the grid.
“What we’re looking at now and what I’ll be bringing forward along with the Commission for Regulation of Utilities (CRU) is a plan-led approach.
“So not just demand-led, but plan-led. So where in the country is the appropriate place for certain centres like this to be located? What additional grid capacity do we need? Coupled with that is obviously the increasing housing demand and industrial demands that we’ll have,” he said.
O’Brien said he believes Ireland is “on the cusp of an energy revolution” with regard to renewables, stating “we’re going to go to a level that hasn’t been seen before”.
The minister said he wants to see construction start on offshore projects within this decade and a reduction on fossil fuels.
There is no peat used in Ireland’s energy system anymore and from 20 June, no coal will be used in energy production, he said.
Speaking about housing, a brief that O’Brien previously held, the minister said he believed the rent control measures announced yesterday are “balanced”.
Extending the Rent Pressure Zones (RPZs) is something that was considered when he was minister, he said, stating that he was glad it was being rolled out now.
O’Brien said he has always “been at pains to say that we need private sector investment”, stating that €14 billion in private capital is required.
Asked why he didn’t bring in the measures under his tenure, O’Brien said his focus was on getting supply up, affordable housing and getting the Land Development Agency to deliver social homes.
The rental measures announced yesterday are “not a silver bullet”, but part of a suite of packages which will be announced in a larger housing plan revamp in the summer, said O’Brien.
Asked about the minister who took over his job, O’Brien said Housing Minister James Browne is doing “very well” in the job. When asked about the criticisms levelled at the new minister, he said:
“I think James has a very deliberative approach. He’s right to read himself in which he’s doing.”
There have been criticisms levelled by some government sources that the Department of Public Expenditure is creating blockages for the Housing Department, with reports of tensions between the two departments.
When asked if that would have been his experience as housing minister, O’Brien said he wouldn’t characterise it in that way, stating that multi-annual budgets provided by DPER provided the certainty needed.
O’Brien came in for much criticism earlier this year for sending a letter to Micheál Martin, who was Tánaiste at the time, Simon Harris, who was taoiseach, and former Green Party leader Eamon Ryan, outlining that Ireland was on track to see close to 40,000 new homes built.
Harris laid blame for last year’s missed housing targets at the feet of the Department of Housing and O’Brien, stating that the government should not have been given the 40,000 housing delivery figure by O’Brien.
It was revealed after the election that the government had fallen far short on the number of homes it pledged to deliver in 2024, despite repeatedly telling the public 40,000 new homes would be built. Figures from the Central Statistics Office show that only 30,300 were delivered.
Asked by The Journal if he felt Harris threw him under the bus with his remarks, O’Brien said no, stating that he works well with the Tánaiste at Cabinet.
“We were never going to sort out housing in a four and a half year period. But we’ve certainly brought it up to a level that far exceeded what the two previous governments did,” said O’Brien.
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