Our submission on the Pre-Legislative Scrutiny of the Private Wires Bill

Our submission to the Joint Committee on Climate, Environment and Energy in response to the Pre-Legislative Scrutiny process of the Private Wires Bill 2025 (Amendments to Electricity Regulation Act 1999). 

Read our submission 

Read our opening statement

We are campaigning for a limit to the expansion of data centres in Ireland and we are grateful for the opportunity to make a submission to the Committee on the Private Wires Bill 2025 (Amendments to Electricity Regulation Act 1999). We believe that in its current form this bill will have significant implications for the expansion of the industry resulting in wider climate, societal and environmental impacts, specifically with regard to the following points which we outline in further detail throughout this submission:

1. Risks to climate obligations and decarbonisation policy 
2. Risks to energy affordability 
3. Risks to areas of high electricity constraint and hoarding of grid capacity 
4. Water stress and environmental impact 
5. Risks to worker safety 

We call on the Committee to recommend substantive changes to the General Scheme of the Bill in light of these points. We list several recommendations in our submission.