By Irishexaminer.com,Paul Hosford

Copyright irishexaminer

Mr Martin said Ireland’s focus over the next number of years will be ramping up production of offshore wind energy, because emerging technology like AI will be energy-intensive.

“In Ireland, the big issue for us will be offshore wind. We have already proven the impact of renewables in terms of our onshore wind performance over the last 20 years,” he said.

“It represents a very substantive part of our energy now. I think the offshore wind is the next big one for us, and we just have to get those offshore wind farms over the line, because that is the key for Ireland; self-reliance and independence in terms of energy.

“It would also then enable us to have some future in terms of AI, because AI will use an enormous amount of energy. We’re currently in difficulty on that front, in the sense of there’s a gap between now and the coming on stream of offshore wind,” Mr Martin added.

Data centres continued to consume a greater share of Ireland’s energy last year, with their electricity consumption rising by 10% in 2024.

Electricity consumption

Figures released earlier this year from the Central Statistics Office (CSO) show that data centre electricity use is rising far more rapidly than any other sector, with homes and other business customers increasing by only 3% in the same period.

Data centres accounted for 22% of the electricity consumed in Ireland last year — up from 21% in 2023, and significantly higher than the 5% share they held in 2015.

In that nine-year period, between the beginning of 2015 and the end of 2024, electricity consumption by data centres rose by 531%.

In contrast, the proportion of electricity consumed by urban and rural households has declined.

Mr Martin said those challenges would mean that Ireland would “keep on pushing on the agenda” of renewable energy.

The Taoiseach’s comments came just 24 hours after US president Donald Trump had called climate change a “con job” in his address to the UN’s General Assembly.

Mr Martin said Ireland does not agree with Mr Trump and said that in previous years there was a “palpable change when the US administration came back on board” to the Paris Climate Agreement.

“But climate for us in Europe, we would disagree with the US administration on this. We believe in the science, and also we believe that there are economic opportunities as well. From a public health perspective, which rarely gets mentioned, there’s huge gains,” Mr Martin said.

“So, if you take fossil fuels out of the equation, ultimately we’re all living healthier lives and so on. But there are challenges to that. So we have to be all-in (on the effort). We have to listen to contrarian voices on it too.”