Ireland 'needs to get its act together' on electricity grid to attract more multinationals

Enterprise Minister Peter Burke said a renewed focus on grid upgrades was needed due to the strategic importance for multinational companies looking to invest here.

The State must invest significantly in the electricity grid as a matter of urgency to prevent a slowdown of multinational companies coming to Ireland, Enterprise Minister Peter Burke has warned.

In an interview with the Irish Examiner, Mr Burke said Ireland needed to “get our act together” on key issues around utilities, saying €160bn was being allocated to improve education, healthcare and broadband, but very little to upgrade the grid infrastructure.

Mr Burke said a renewed focus on grid upgrades was needed due to the strategic importance for multinational companies looking to invest here.

He held a 'competitiveness summit' in recent weeks, gathering multinational stakeholders, such as the IDA and Enterprise Ireland, to examine Ireland’s position on the world stage.

“We are in significant danger. When you talk tax — tax is no longer the competitive advantage,” Mr Burke said, highlighting the importance of issues such as skilled workers, where Ireland excels.

“Where we are under pressure is your utilities, namely energy costs, electricity costs, water and wastewater.

“We as a country need to get our act together in that regard.”

He said electricity interconnectors coming from the UK and France would be welcome and make the country “more resilient”, but an adequate grid infrastructure was required to provide that to businesses at a “cost advantage”.

“So, in the next decade, we arguably have to invest more in our grid [than we have] since the foundation of the State,” Mr Burke said.

“My view is that businesses can’t pay for that upgrading of the grid. We need to be very clear in that and to ensure that we as a State find a mechanism to fund that investment, be it an off-balance sheet mechanism or be it debt-equity."

Enterprise Minister Peter Burke said in the next decade we 'have to invest more in our grid [than we have] since the foundation of the State'. Picture: Sasko Lazarov / RollingNews.ie

Mr Burke said the Department of Public Expenditure would decide on whether the State itself would directly fund grid upgrades, or if it would be done through issuing Government bonds.

The call for further investment by the State in grid infrastructure comes as more and more energy is being consumed by data centres across the country.

The most recent data from the Central Statistics Office shows that data centres used more electricity in 2023 than all urban homes. 

More specifically, data centres consumed 6.3 terrawatt hours’ worth of electricity last year.

Mr Burke said businesses must be at the forefront of the minds of both Finance Minister Jack Chambers and Public Expenditure Minister Paschal Donohoe when finalising budgets.

“It’s all our SMEs and businesses up around the country that give us those resources and we can never forget that,” Mr Burke said.

“If we impinge or dilute the capacity of those who are baking that huge cake of resources that we’re trying to divide up, we’ll be in a very perilous situation. So we have to be careful in that regard.”