Aontú TD for Mayo, Paul Lawless challenged the Tánaiste Simon Harris during Leaders’ Questions in the Dáil today over discrepancies in electricity prices for data centres and households.
Speaking today, Deputy Lawless said: “In 2024 data centres used 22% of all electricity in Ireland. That was more than all urban homes combined. Data centres are placing huge pressure on the grid and therefore pushing up electricity prices. A report released today shows that at the current trajectory data centres will add up to 1.4 Billion euro more onto household electricity bills, over the next decade. The government policies at the moment allow data centres to buy electricity at half the price that regular households are paying. This is scandalous”.
Deputy Lawless continued: “The government last announced an energy credit in November 2024 – the month of the last general election. But as soon as they got re-elected they completely abandoned credits. This left many of my constituents on a cliff edge. I’ve had elderly people come up to me trembling with their electricity bills asking me if there is a mistake in the bill, because it was so extortionate. There are over 316,000 households in arrears on their electricity bills at the moment, and yet data centres are getting cheaper electricity, cheaper connection charges and the pressure they’re putting on the grid is pushing prices up for ordinary people”.
“The ESB is a semi state body. The CEO salary is over €300,000. This is more than what the Taoiseach is paid. Already over €300 of what people pay each year on electricity is profit for the ESB. Today we learn that Electric Ireland are pushing their prices up by 8% from July and this is going to add about €250 a year to electricity and gas bills for an average household. We need better regulation of the data centre sector. I asked the Tánaiste to legislate to regulate the sector, and to put an end to this practice of cheap prices for the rich data centres and expensive prices for ordinary hard-working people”, concluded Lawless.
