Data centres are energy-hungry and employ few people, so why does Ireland need more of them?

Plus, the five key economic battlegrounds ahead of the general election

Listen | 40:18
Data centres are energy-hungry and it has been argued their benefit isn’t immediately obvious to the public, or indeed to Ireland Inc.
Data centres are energy-hungry and it has been argued their benefit isn’t immediately obvious to the public, or indeed to Ireland Inc.

In his recent piece for the Irish Times, Harry Goddard, CEO of Big Four firm Deloitte, argues that Ireland needs to build more data centres. He says this could generate the demand for a sufficient number of renewable energy projects to be built to help those facilities operate on a carbon neutral basis.

He joins Inside Business host Ciarán Hancock to explain why more data centres need to be built here, despite the large amount of electricity and water necessary to run them and the relatively small amount of people employed by them.

Also on the podcast, Eoin Burke Kennedy of The Irish Times outlines five key battlegrounds in the upcoming general election, which we now know will be held this year. He cites housing, spending overruns, the cost-of-living crisis, interest rates, and business failures.

Produced by John Casey with JJ Vernon on sound.