Should farmers be concerned about data centres?
Data centres have been the subject of much heated debate in recent weeks, but are they of concern for farmers and rural communities?
One key aspect of the debate is data centres' intensive use of resources, meaning they have energy demands that some people believe will impact prices for everyone.
The increasing consumption of electricity by data centres was highlighted again this week in new data from the Central Statistics Office (CSO).
According to its ‘Data Centres Metered Electricity Consumption 2025’ report, data centre electricity consumption grew by 10% last year compared with 2024.
Consumption by all other users, including residential and other business customers, increased by 2% over the same period.
Commenting on the release, Dr. Grzegorz Glaczynski, statistician in the CSO's Climate and Energy Division, said: "Newly compiled quarterly figures spanning 2015 to 2025 highlight a substantial increase in metered electricity consumption by data centres.
“Over this period, data centre consumption saw a significant increase, from 291 GWh in the first quarter of 2015 to 1,991 GWh in Q4 2025, growing by 584%.”
The statistician added that electricity usage by data centres has grown "every single year without exception".
“Parallel data on nationwide power usage indicates that data centres expanded their share of overall metered electricity from 5% in 2015 to 23% in 2025," he said.
"For comparison, 2025 consumption stood at 18% for urban households and 9% for rural households.”
Oireachtas debate
This expanding usage of electricity by data centres was the subject of a Oireachtas debate in which Dublin Labour TD Ciarán Ahern raised a number of motions, including a request that the facilities be recognised as “overly concentrated" in Ireland.
Deputy Ahern claimed this means data centres are "using an ever-increasing amount of energy, resulting in higher costs for households and businesses, and increased development is now at odds with our climate targets”.
During the same Oireachtas debate, Wexford Labour TD George Lawlor added: “As our motion says, the massive energy demand from data centres means that gas is setting the wholesale price rather than renewables, making everyone's electricity more expensive.
“This is only going to get worse if we continue to build more and more of them.
“Data centres currently consume 22% of the electricity in this State. This is projected to grow to 30% by 2030 and they could ultimately consume as much as 55% of all the electricity demand in Ireland. This is insane.
“That is more than every household, school, hospital, small business, farm and factory combined. An entire energy system is increasingly organised around the demands of a small number of large corporate users and their interests .”
Deputy Lawlor added that Labour is calling for the introduction of a levy on data centre energy usage.
“It is about fairness,” he said.
He added: “If data centres are contributing to higher costs across the electricity network, then it is reasonable that they should contribute more towards those costs."
In the same debate, Independent TD Mattie McGrath said: "With regard to data centres, people are trying to heat their homes, the cost of living is going up and data centres are having an inordinate impact."
However, the other side of the debate argues that data centres are important for Ireland's economy.
Catherine Ardagh, Minister of State at the Department of Justice, Home Affairs and Migration, defended data centres in the Oireachtas debate on June 17.
She said: “Data centres are central to Ireland's modern economy and play a critical enabling role across a wide range of digitally intensive sectors, enhancing the competitiveness of the Irish economy.
“They strengthen Ireland’s position as a strategic knowledge intensive regional hub for the information and communications technology sector and also support broader retention and expansion of existing investment that supports billions in annual economic value for Ireland via high-wage employment, tax receipts and supplier ecosystems.”
Objections
An Oireachtas report compiled by expert researchers from the Parliamentary Research Service last year found that Ireland has “around 121 data centres operated by 24 providers” across the country.
In rural areas, objections to planned data centres seem to be emerging.
For instance, a proposed Co. Westmeath data centre was the subject of several formal objections, according to lobby group, Not Here Not Anywhere.
The group stated on social media earlier this year that planning of a data centre “was denied by Westmeath Council last year with 60 objections submitted and concerns raised over the size and climate impact of the development”.
With Ireland set to miss its EU climate targets, a government defending the buildings, and objections from opposition and pockets of rural Ireland, it looks like the data centre debate is just heating up.
