The Deputy should maybe replay my answer to the last four questions but I understand why this is an area of interest. I thank him for tabling this question. Our industrial electricity demand is primarily concentrated in our digital economy. I say this because we are not a large industrial nation. We do not make trains or cars. We do not have heavy industry here. Our heavy industry is ICT. Other countries in Europe have large heavy industrial bases and use energy for these. Part of our competitiveness as a country, …

Deputy Ahern is perfectly entitled to raise the issue. I welcome the fact it has been raised and note it has been raised by three of the Opposition parties. It is a matter that is appropriate for discussion. This is why, in fairness, when I came into this portfolio we looked at the situation and what existed before and moved forward with the large energy user action plan, which is a plan-led approach, looking at regions also. This is the appropriate way to do it. I mentioned to Deputy Daly earlier the PR 6 capital …

Any connection application made goes through an independent process and it can be accepted or declined. Not every connection application that is made is approved. That is a fact, and if we look at how many new data centres have been built or delivered in the past few years, there are very few. Someone referenced Sweden. If we look at Finland, it has received extremely large data centre investment, to the tune of about €20 billion. Obvious we have to step through what is appropriate and what can be managed and manag…

We are committed to supporting emissions reductions in the built environment sector across the economy. That is what Deputy Daly specifically asked in the question. We are taking action every day to implement climate mitigation measures, which also provide warmer and more comfortable homes and support energy affordability, energy security and energy sustainability for households and businesses. The EPA's latest provisional greenhouse gas emissions inventory, published in July, shows the impact this work is having. …

There were a number of supplementary questions there. The Deputy mentioned the accessibility of grants. That is what I changed earlier this year. We do not want to leave anybody behind. There are some questions later about the warmer homes scheme, which is the full 100% grant. We have done full deep retrofits, which are 100% grant-aided, for close to 40,000 homes for lower income families. That is really important. I changed the grants earlier this year to break them down and I brought in the windows and doors gran…

It is ring-fenced.

On the planning guidelines, work is being done on them. The Minister for Housing, Local Government and Heritage is the lead on that process. Obviously, we feed into it. I agree with the Deputy. Most companies in the development sector engage well with communities. After these questions conclude, I will be out in my own county, in Ballyboughal, for the opening of a very large solar farm up there. Solar energy is a very important clean resource. There are 3 GW of it in our energy system now. If we go back 11 years, t…

I am not going to give the Deputy a date now, because I will have to talk to the Minister. We are feeding into that process. I ask the Deputy to let me get a timeframe that is realistic and I will come back to him directly.

I propose to take Questions Nos. 10 and 17 together. The warmer homes scheme aims to improve the energy efficiency and warmth of homes owned by people at risk of energy poverty by providing fully funded retrofits to households in receipt of certain Department of Social Protection income supports. I am pleased to say delivery under the scheme has ramped up hugely in recent years. Just over 3,000 homes were upgraded in 2019, compared with 8,100 last year, or 109% of what we had targeted. Between 2019 and August of th…

I agree with the Deputy. I mentioned in my first response that I am looking at this very issue right now in advance of the budget. I announced earlier this year that we would trial high-temperature heat pumps, plug-in heat pumps, which I think will be an option. A pilot of about 100 homes is ongoing. I think a number are in the Deputy's constituency. We will get the data from that. It could be a very good near-term solution. We will get the data by the end of the year or early next year. Should the data stack up, i…

We will conclude our work on this over the course of the next couple of weeks. There will be a lead-in period. If I am able to get approval to do something specific in this space, I will see it implemented in January. I recognise the costs. We doubled the existing heat pump grants to €12,500. They are significant, but for lower income families, can we go that bit further and just cover the heat pumps? It involves labour costs and installation. The grant covers a significant amount of the cost of the equipment. Wher…

You certainly can. All interventions are gratefully received.

I thank Deputy Stanley. Many Deputies have raised this matter today, understandably, and I have answered in detail. However, to answer the Deputy, for fear of repetition, data centres provide essential digital infrastructure for the economy and strengthen our position as a strategic knowledge-intensive location for the digital and tech sectors. As I mentioned earlier, just short of 190,000 people work in ICT, so it is significant. We are not a large, heavy industry country but I would contend ICT is that sector. Th…

-----in Laois, and particularly Portlaoise.

I fully understand why the Deputy is raising the issue and it is important we debate it, but not every application is accepted. I do not just accept every application for connection that comes in. Applications for connection agreements are made and they can be accepted or refused. We have set out how new applications have to be processed in a plan-led way. It is not just first come, first served or that people just apply for a data centre and get it. PR6, the grid investment programme, outlines what we need to do t…

I responded earlier about water usage. Uisce Éireann estimates that approximately 0.3% of water is used in data centres. They are its figures. I just wanted to put that on the record of the House again. However, I reiterate that it has to be managed and we are doing that. That is why Peter Burke and I brought forward the Large Energy User Action Plan. It sets out how, in a plan-led way, some of the conditions of future connection agreements for data centres are that there must be capacity and 80% of the energy must…

I thank Deputy Boland for a really important question. She is right to highlight the fact that the SEAI underspent last year, even though it did more homes than it had ever done before. That is not a situation that we want. We want this money invested in permanent changes to reduce energy consumption in households and businesses to reduce their costs and reduce emissions. That is why, earlier on this year, I worked directly with the SEAI and instructed it to break down the grants to make them more accessible. We br…

I do not have the figures. I gave Deputy McAuliffe an answer regarding the uptick earlier on. We did 8,100 warmer homes schemes projects in the last full year, 2025, which is a big increase. Overall, just short of 40,000 homes have been done. We will exceed that this year. Obviously, we still have a few months to go. We will exceed the number done the previous year. I have mentioned the issue of those who have end-of-life boilers. There are specific things that we can do. We are piloting high-temperature heat pumps…

On the specific question of the contractors, that was part of the discussion I had with the SEAI last week. It went out to public procurement for contractors for the warmer homes scheme and selected a number of contractors. I have asked the authority to review that with a view to adding more. I know of a couple of contractors around the country, very good companies, that did not make the list. I am looking at Deputy Carthy, who might be aware of one such company in his own area. These omissions surprised me. I have…

I thank the Deputy. The system operators, EirGrid and ESB Networks, are charged with responsibility for upgrading our electricity system, including planning and constructing new investments in the grid. They are accountable to the Commission for Regulation of Utilities, CRU, in that regard. However, investing in and ensuring a fit for purpose electricity grid is an absolute priority for me and the Government. I regularly meet with ESB Networks and with EirGrid - I am meeting with EirGrid later today on its work as …