Lynn Boylan (The Left). – Mr President, Ireland has become a complete outlier when it comes to data centres. This week, another report showed how data centres are undermining our climate and our energy goals.

Since 2017, Ireland has added significant wind energy, but the climate benefit has been erased as data centres devour it instead of displacing fossil fuels. Worse, data centres are increasingly connecting now to the gas grid in Ireland, creating a blind spot in carbon planning and widening the gap between Ireland's climate targets and our actual emissions. We are also offshoring our emissions to Britain, which is further obscuring their true climate impact.

The Energy Efficiency Directive requires governments to register data centres by this autumn, offering a chance for some transparency. Yet Ireland and most Member States have failed to act. Germany and the Netherlands have created databases, but they remain incomplete.

So while households are being pushed to change, big tech escapes accountability. Without urgent action to curb our energy impact, data centres will leave our climate and our energy targets in tatters.