Sir, – According to your piece "Data centres should be bound by emissions ceilings, Government says" (News, September 29th) on the challenge posed by data centres and their energy consumption, Dr Patrick Bresnihan of NUI Maynooth advises a moratorium on further data centre construction until more renewable sources come online, presumably in the vague and distant future. Dr Bresnihan points to increased energy costs for consumers and carbon taxes, and claims that this consumption will be "perceived as unfair".
There are voices in some of our political parties who advise a ban on further construction or a pause for some indefinite period of time.
As one who works in the IT sector, I find these attitudes concerning in the extreme. The IT and the services sectors form one of the most important pillars of our economy and help underpin our prosperity. Data centres are a key and strategic component to this infrastructure and provide well-paid employment to thousands.
There was a time when Ireland had little industry. Tens of thousands of people were forced away every year in search of employment. The damage to our society was, and remains, incalculable. But data centres are the factories of today, and industry has always required power.
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It is telling that academics and politicians seem to miss that data centres are not just fed electricity, or receive it as charity from the grid: they purchase it. We sell it to them, and we sell it at a profit, with a fine helping of tax on top.
There is enough clean, renewable energy off our shores to power this country multiple times over. There is a massive opportunity to meet all our power requirements and remove carbon from our economy, and political parties need to adopt highly aggressive policies to realise this opportunity and quickly.
Turning away business for five to 10 years is not an option, and well-educated voters working in IT know this well.
Our politicians need to understand that it’s going to be hard to get power if they don’t “get” power. – Yours, etc,
DANNY RAFFERTY,
Raheny,
Dublin 5.