Government's Private Wires Bill under scrutiny, Friends of the Earth Ireland urges pause

Friends of the Earth Ireland welcomes recommendations of Committee that Private Wires needs to conform to climate protections, and now calls for bill to be paused.

Friends of the Earth Ireland welcomes recommendations published this week by the Joint Committee on Climate, Environment and Energy on Pre-Legislative Scrutiny of the Private Wires Bill which recommends that the bill should be tightened up to comply with climate law, protect households from shouldering higher bills, and to prevent “the diversion of scarce renewable capacity away from uses that are in the public interest”. 

The report also notes that data centres, which can use the same amount of electricity as tens of thousands of homes for a single development, may not be suitable for private wires. Friends of the Earth Ireland also welcomes the Committee’s recommendation that the Government needs to tighten up its justification for introducing this bill, noting that some of the bill’s proposed objectives could be met through existing legislation. 

Rosi Leonard, Data Centre Campaign Lead with Friends of the Earth Ireland commented: 

It’s clear from the recommendations made by the Climate Committee that in its current form, the Private Wires bill is full of contradictions and risks diverting clean, and more affordable  renewables away from the public interest and into the hands of what the Committee call “better-capitalised actors”. We are seeing this in real-time with Big Tech poised to hoover up land and renewables in the Midlands through deals with Bord na Móna.

In its current form, this bill could end up foisting higher costs onto ordinary people, and it’s good to see the Committee call this out in their recommendations. It’s now up to the Government to act in the public interest and pause the progression of this bill. This bill could open up the energy network in Ireland to privatisation, and the cost of doing this should not be taken likely by any in Government.

Sean McLoughlin, Climate Policy Officer at Friends of the Earth Ireland commented:

We’re relieved to see that the Climate Committee has worked to address so many of the risks which this bill, in its current form, poses both to our climate goals and to our health and wellbeing. It’s vital that the Government acts in the broader public interest by taking these recommendations on board. It is especially encouraging to see the Committee insist that fossil fuelled gas plants should not be allowed to connect to a private operator, and we believe this recommendation should be strengthened to ensure private wires are never used as an excuse to extend the lifetime of polluting gas infrastructure. Investment in renewables needs to be strengthened; not undermined by poor legislation.

 

Friends of the Earth Ireland has previously raised alarm regarding the rushed introduction of the Private Wires bill due to concerns that it is a trojan horse for increased data centre development and will create a “two-tier” energy system. Friends of the Earth Ireland calls on Government to pause the introduction of this legislation until the committee’s recommendations are addressed, and focus on the expansion of a resilient, clean and publicly owned energy system which unlocks our communities from expensive fossil-fuel dependence.