Dáil Éireann Debate, Thursday - 16 April 2026
167. Deputy Donna McGettigan asked the Minister for Climate, Energy and the Environment the specific methods and departmental protocols used to measure and verify data centre water consumption from both public and private sources across relevant catchments; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [27782/26]
Amharc ar fhreagra168. Deputy Donna McGettigan asked the Minister for Climate, Energy and the Environment the legislative requirements or Departmental regulations that mandate data centre operators to report their water consumption from either private wells or the national supply; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [27783/26]
Amharc ar fhreagraI propose to take Questions Nos. 167 and 168 together.
Article 12 of the Energy Efficiency Directive 2023/1791 (‘EED’) and its delegated Regulation 2024/1364 provides for an obligation for owners and operators of certain sized data centres to monitor and make publicly available, subject to Union and national law protecting trade and business secrets and confidentiality, information on key metrics on their energy and sustainability performance. The required indicators relate to energy consumption, cooling, waste heat utilisation, water usage and renewable energy use, among others.
As part of the implementation of the EED, data centres in Ireland are reporting this information to a confidential EU database on data centres established and operated by the European Commission. Reporting is ongoing and the Commission is responsible for making it publicly available in an aggregated manner in-line with the delegated regulation. This information is being used to establish an EU wide rating scheme to measure and promote efficiencies in the energy and sustainability performance of data centres. The Commission has recently opened a public consultation on its draft legislation to give effect to this rating scheme.
More generally, water usage management and conservation across commercial and industrial (non-domestic) sectors, including data centres, is an operational matter under the remit of Uisce Éireann. Uisce Éireann has statutory responsibility for all aspects of water services planning, delivery and operations at national, regional and local levels. Uisce Éireann has a dedicated team to deal with representations and queries from public representatives that can be contacted via email to oireachtasmembers@water.ie or by telephone 0818 578 578.
