Lynn Boylan has demanded that Minister Peter Burke publish the full data centre report, including the impact on household bills.
Documents obtained by the Sinn Féin MEP for Dublin, under Freedom of Information (FOI) reveal that the Terms of Reference for the €100,000 report were heavily skewed to produce a predetermined outcome in favour of data centres.
The Dublin MEP said:
“This report was essentially a cost-benefit analysis without looking at the costs. Minister Burke’s own terms of reference made it clear that the government only wanted to hear one side of the story. Out of 27 pages, practically everything was focused on the supposed benefits of data centres.
“But the obvious downsides of data centres are too glaring to ignore. The original Terms of Reference explicitly asked consultants to examine the “increases in electricity prices related to any grid infrastructure developments required to support further data centre development”.
“We need to see what the consultants had to say about data centres and costs.
“Even officials in Jack Chambers’ department conceded that data centres were driving up costs, as revealed in an FOI recently released to me.
“I have been sounding the alarm for years about data centres driving up costs. Whether it is the secret subsidy on household bills or the shocking disparity in network charges where households are paying 10 times as much as data centres for grid upgrades.
“Just last week, a report from Friends of the Earth confirmed data centres were adding to household bills.
“The public needs to see the full picture. Minister Burke must publish the full report immediately.”
