Lisa Ryan

They are necessary.

And I guess that's one of the arguments you might say is that we're all using AI.

We're all using a lot of data.

And so, you know, it doesn't really matter where those data centers are in the sense that they have to be put somewhere.

Unfortunately, AI is even more intensive in terms of the energy use and the amount of data centers that we need.

So you could argue that if we really cared, maybe we should be getting rid of how much AI we use.

I suppose the point is, though, that Ireland now has a disproportionate amount of data centres.

If we look at the various reports, they point out that, you know, per head of population, we have more data centres in Ireland than I think anywhere in the world.

So the question is, you know, we have a very isolated electricity system.

It's quite challenging to maintain this infrastructure.

So maybe we're not really the best place to be having such a high proportion of all these data centres here.

I think there are.

I mean, I think countries that have, you know, a very stable baseload electricity, especially ones that come from renewables, will be a good place.

So if you think of Norway or Austria, they have a lot of hydroelectricity, so they have nearly 100% renewable electricity, but it's dispatchable.

In other words, it's not reliant on the weather.

It doesn't need to be as flexible as ours.

Or say France, with its nuclear electricity, it's just a baseload all the time.

They would be countries you would expect that would have a better chance of, you know, sustaining such a high share of infrastructure that you would need for data centres and to provide this level of electricity demand.

Yeah, I mean, that's right.

The report last week that the government presented a report on the benefits of data centres.