Demonstration in Dublin to show public unease over data-centre expansion

Sir, – Communities raising concerns about data-centre expansion deserve answers. From Naas to Drogheda and Kilmeadan to Ennis their questions are clear. Who benefits from these developments? Who pays for the additional pressure on our electricity system?

What say do communities have in decisions that affect their future? What’s the impact of the massive emissions these facilities produce? What else can be built in the area if one development soaks up more electricity than a town?

Data centres already use 23 per cent of Ireland’s electricity, the highest per capita in the world. If all the centres in the pipeline received permission, it would add about 700MW of energy demand in a few years. That is like dropping a county the size of Cork on to our grid, just for Big Tech.

Public information on resource-use by data centres is hard to come by or is non-existent due to lack of transparency measures. More than €715 million extra has been paid by Irish households on their electricity bills due to data-centre demand inflating wholesale electricity prices, a figure set to rise further. Job promises are low, but the costs are high.

Two recent opinion polls, including an Ipsos B&A poll in this newspaper, found that 61 per cent of respondents wanted a halt to new data centres.

This is the backdrop to the first national demonstration against new data centres, which takes place this Saturday, starting from the Garden of Remembrance in Dublin at noon, part of a European day of action involving more than 101 groups across 15 countries.

Communities leading the march are asking the Government to put the public interest, health and affordability at the centre of energy policy.

A moratorium on new data centres is a sensible and legitimate demand. One that deserves to be heard. – Yours, etc,

ROSI LEONARD,

Friends of the Earth Ireland,

Dublin.