Data Centre Day of Action Phonebank Toolkit

Stop the Data Centre Power Grab: Join our Day of Action

On March 11, groups across the country will be taking action on data centres. You can join our Day of Action, too—from the comfort of your home at that. Will you join our phone bank and let your TDs know you’re opposed to the Government handing over even more resources to Big Tech? What's in this toolkit

1. Guide for what to say on the call.

2. Contact details for Government TDs.

3. Factsheet and more infor on data centres in Ireland.

1. Guide for what to say on the call

Tips to know before you call: 

• You will probably get through to an assistant or a voicemail rather than your own TD directly.

• If you get through to an assistant, you can still ask them to pass on the message. If you get through to a voicemail, leave a message. 

• Feel free to put this guide in your own words if you like. There’s no need to get into a big debate, you can simply say you feel strongly about this. 

• For any support on the day, text Rosi on 089 227 4877, let her know when you’ve made your call! 

Here's a suggested script for the phone call:

Hi, my name is _________ and I live in your constituency in _______ . 

I wanted to give you a call because I’m very worried about what I’ve been hearing about the Government’s new plans for data centres, especially the new private wires legislation. I’m very worried about the effect that this will have on energy bills and our climate.  

I’d really like you to pass on the message that I don’t support more data centre development in Ireland right now. I think they’re polluting too much, and over a quarter of our electricity goes to data centres already, that is a really huge amount.

I don’t want [name of your TD] to support private wires if it means more big AI data centres. 

Protecting our climate and making sure that we have access to clean energy in our communities is more important to me than building more data centres right now.  Thanks for taking the call.

2. Contact details for Government TDs 

Detailed spreadsheet of contact details here

3. Factsheet and more info on data centres in Ireland 

Why are we asking people to contact Government TD’s now? 

• The Government has recently announced new plans to allow Big Tech giants to expand across Ireland. This includes a new piece of legislation called Private Wires. If passed, the Private Wires bill would change the law to allow data centres to build their own private electricity lines in Ireland. There are no capacity limits on the data centres; they would still be allowed to build back up gas generation, and they would still be able to connect to the public grid as a back up without having to pay the same network charges as everyone else if they also use a private wire. 
• This Private Wires policy will benefit large tech giants the most who are looking to take over huge amounts of land, water and energy resources to build hyperscale data centres for algorithms, Generative AI, and to put it simply - data junk that does not serve any social purpose. 
• Neither ESB Networks, which currently operates the grid, unions who represent energy workers, nor the Energy Regulator (CRU), actively supports the need for Private Wires.
• 28 organisations, unions and community groups recently signed a letter to Minister Darragh O’Brien asking him to scrap the private wires bill, bring in a moratorium and change the way energy connections are decided. 
• We want to increase pressure on local politicians so that they pay attention to the risks associated with data centres, particularly the new Private Wires Bill. The Government would like to rush this bill through the Dáil, so we need to show our opposition. 

Tell me more about the context

• Data centres use over 23% of electricity in Ireland - an increase of over 400% since 2015. Globally, data centres in Ireland now use more electricity per capita than anywhere else in the world. This has serious implications on energy bills, constraints on the grid, pollution and emissions, water security, and decarbonisation and renewables roll out. 
• The Government is now looking to change the law to allow energy users to build their own private electricity lines - with data centres set to gain the most. This policy is called Private Wires, and Government is currently moving it through the Dáil. The Joint Committee on Climate and Energy is holding hearings on this legislation at the moment. These hearings are set to finish on March 4th, and then will be moved to the Dáil for a vote.
• Polling shows that people in Ireland want the industry to be better regulated, and want energy prioritised for social need - not just scooped up by Tech giants. 
• Friends of the Earth are calling for a moratorium on data centres, until it’s clear that they don’t pose a threat to our climate and our resources, and they can live within planetary boundaries. 

How do data centres impact….

Pressure on resources: Data Centres need huge amounts of energy to run their servers. One data centre can use as much energy as thousands of households, without creating many jobs beyond the construction stage. 

Data centre operators are often applying for more electricity capacity than they need - this is because a lot of data centre build out is speculative. Think of them like a supermarket developer that is building space that may or may not be filled. Eirgrid figures show that data centres were only using approximately 34% of their contracted capacity in 2023. Put simply, this means many data centres have empty space, but are still hoarding capacity and building more in the hopes of providing real estate space for the AI boom. This is a systemic strategy by the industry,  a phenomenon that is seen around the world . 

Water: Data centres are thirsty buildings and need millions of litres of water to keep cool. This is water that is taken from the public supply. Meta’s data centre in Clonee uses over 600,000 million of litres of water a year. 

Clean energy and decarbonisation: Data Centres have grown so fast in Ireland that they are popping up quicker than we can build clean energy. In fact between 2015 and 2023, data centre demand completely outpaced all the additional clean wind energy that came on stream across the country. This has knock-on effects for all other energy users, and means instead of replacing fossil fuels, renewables are just being mopped up through increasing energy demand. Gas demand goes up as the Government tries to ensure the lights stay on across the country. This makes us vulnerable to fossil fuel imports and geopolitical tensions. And most recently the Government is trying to justify the build out of state-owned LNG terminal that will import fracked gas from the US. Fracking is so dangerous it is banned in Ireland. 

Bills: Data Centres have put such a strain on the grid that is having an impact on bills. Unfair pricing structures also mean that proportionally, households pay less than data centres in terms of network charges. Private Wires legislation would possibly make this even worse, as under the Private Wires policy, data centres availing of a private wire connection would not have to pay normal network charges, despite relying on the public grid for back up.

Research has shown that Irish households generally pay more than twice as much than data centres overall (generation & supply + networks). For generation & supply alone, households pay 50 to 80% more per unit. For network charges, households pay around 6 to 8 times more per unit. 

Climate targets and pollution: Data Centres are driving up gas demand in the wrong direction. This is happening for a few reasons, but put simply, if you want large amounts of quick to access energy now, burning gas is quicker than building a wind farm. Tech giants like Microsoft and Echelon have built their own gas plants next to their data centres in South Dublin County Council. In that council area, data centres now account for over 30% of emissions. New gas pipelines are being approved to provide gas to data centres. 

This has huge knock on effects for legally binding carbon budgets, as Professor Hannah Daly has outlined in her report on data centres and carbon budgets. In this report she estimates that the “maximum potential annual GHG emissions from data centres’ gas connections is 20 MtCO2 – which is equivalent to 68% of all CO2 emissions arising from fossil fuel combustion in Ireland in 2023.” (p. 18 of this report)