Data centres have been offered cut‑price gas if they agree to the possibility of supply being interrupted, according to a new report from the CRU.

The same report warns that linking data centres to the gas network could trigger shortages by the winter of 2032/33 if conditions are severe, with demand so high that Ireland may be unable to import enough gas to heat homes, hospitals and businesses.

Sinn Féin MEP Lynn Boylan said the situation stems from the government "recklessly rolling out the red carpet to data centres with no strings attached".

"Given that 27% of households connected to the gas grid are in arrears, it's another insult to people for the data centres that are part of driving up the cost of energy, are being offered discounts, while households have been left in the cold by the government." Lynn said.

Boylan noted that while the gas system might cope in a mild winter, a colder‑than‑average season would leave the grid short of the fuel it needs to meet demand.

"It's ridiculous that the CRU's proposals to ease the drain on our electricity grid from data centres, is just to plug them into the gas grid – rather than to even propose a moratorium on connecting the centres to the grid." she said. She added that the pressure these facilities would place on the system is "off the charts" according to Lynn.

She said: "Seventeen data centres would have a peak gas demand of six 500 MWe Combined Cycle Gas Turbine (CCGT) generators. For context, the slightly smaller 445-megawatt Whitegate CCGT generator in Co Cork provides power for 445,000 homes.

"The cheerleaders of data centres in government will use this as an excuse to manufacture consent for an expensive, a destructive LNG terminal. Instead of saying to big tech enough is enough, they want to give them anything they want regardless of the impact on the public and climate.

"This level of mismanagement is a sure sign that the government is repeating the exact same mistakes it made with data centres and the electricity system.

"Again, rather than pushing back on the demands of big tech companies and their data centres when their usage pushed our grid into 'amber alerts', which mean there's an increased risk of blackouts, they instead spent hundreds of millions of public money on temporary emergency generation to avert the worst blackouts.

"The government approach to the data centre question is reckless, and risks harming development and investment in other key areas, including housing and infrastructure."