| Large energy users' network tariffs rose much faster than households': +175% vs +45%, 2020-2026. | mostly accurate | The +175% reproduces exactly from the CRU's PR6 impact note: the extra-large energy user archetype (190 GWh/yr, 44 MW, data-centre sized) paid EUR 2.45m in network charges in 2020-21 and EUR 6.76m in 2024-25 (+175%). The same tables give the domestic archetype EUR 293 -> EUR 384 (+31%), not +45%. We could not reproduce +45% (it may use 2025-26 tariffs; unchecked). |
| CRU rules socialise data-centre grid costs onto households; connection fees don't cover reinforcement (TCD, 'By Design, Not by Default'). | can't be tested with public data | No public data splits network reinforcement cost by the customers who caused it, so the core claim cannot be tested. Supporting facts check out. CRU (CRU202504, Feb 2025): Castlebaggot 220 kV station was planned for housing and West Dublin growth, but its new capacity was 'almost entirely used by data centres'. The EUR 100m cost was not checked. CRU's 2020 factsheet put network costs at 31.8% of a typical household bill ('~30%'). |
| Drafts of the KPMG report flagged opportunity costs against housing/transport; these were removed after Department feedback. | mostly accurate | The drafts are FOI-only, so the before/after cannot be checked from public documents. What can be checked is the published report. The published KPMG report never mentions housing (0 occurrences in the text), consistent with the reported removal. |
| Data centres drew close to a billion litres from public supply in 2025 (999m L), and their use roughly doubled in summer 2026. | accurate | Summing the public-supply water in the EPA AERs reproduces The Journal's figures exactly: 752.1m L for 2024 and 999.2m L for 2025 (1,047.6m L if K2 Strategic P1143 is included). So it is an AER total for 16 licensed sites, not an Uisce Éireann meter total. That is ~0.17% of public supply. Uisce Éireann's own figure for 57 connected sites (4.78 ML/day) annualises to ~1.74bn L (~0.29%), consistent with its 'less than 0.3%' advice to the Minister. |
| Data-centre demand pushed up wholesale prices: ~EUR 360 per household over 2015-2023. | mostly accurate | Mechanism: data centres add a flat ~0.9 GW to demand, so more hours are priced by gas plant. Our wholesale data agree gas most likely set the Irish price in ~81% of half-hours (Oct 2025-Sep 2026). We reran the same residual-demand method on independent data. 2021-23 (Ember hourly prices + EirGrid demand and wind): ~EUR 293 per household (3,682 kWh), vs Fearon's EUR 263. 2020: ~EUR 23. Oct 2025-Sep 2026 (SEMOpx + EirGrid): ~EUR 30/MWh, or ~EUR 110-130 per household per year. |
| If data centres are built elsewhere, the IP assets behind Ireland's corporation tax could follow. | can't be tested with public data | The numbers are right: corporation tax was EUR 33.0bn in 2025 (Department of Finance: 2026 forecast EUR 35.3bn, up EUR 2.3bn) and computer services exports were EUR 279bn in 2024 (CSO, via KPMG). The causal link is an assertion. No public data links where IP is booked to where data centres are built. KPMG's own report says services can be delivered from data centres located elsewhere. |
| Data centres added ~EUR 360 to the average household's electricity costs over 2015-2023 (EUR 263 in 2021-23) and will add EUR 295-644 over 2025-2034. | mostly accurate | Mechanism: data centres add a flat ~0.9 GW to demand, so more hours are priced by gas plant. Our wholesale data agree gas most likely set the Irish price in ~81% of half-hours (Oct 2025-Sep 2026). We reran the same residual-demand method on independent data. 2021-23 (Ember hourly prices + EirGrid demand and wind): ~EUR 293 per household (3,682 kWh), vs Fearon's EUR 263. 2020: ~EUR 23. Oct 2025-Sep 2026 (SEMOpx + EirGrid): ~EUR 30/MWh, or ~EUR 110-130 per household per year. |
| The ICT sector contributes EUR 107.5bn; EUR 18bn data-centre ecosystem investment; 105 facilities; Dublin power 1.9 GW. | can't be tested with public data | The EUR 107.5bn and EUR 18bn headlines rest on an unpublished method and can't be tested. The export figure checks out: EUR 279bn of computer services exports in 2024, ~58% of services exports (CSO via KPMG). |
| 84 of 97 Dublin data centres (86.6%) are in disadvantaged areas; data-centre electricity use is 22% of demand (2024), up 463% since 2015. | mostly accurate | Our join: each of the 79 directory campuses placed in its 2022 electoral division (ED) on Pobal's public HP Deprivation 2022 layer. Of 54 Dublin campuses, 40 (74%) sit in EDs scoring below the national average; of the 44 operating ones, 34 (77%). But only 24 of the 54 (44%) are in EDs Pobal labels 'Disadvantaged' or worse; 16 are 'Marginally below average'. The 86.6% matches 'below average', not 'disadvantaged' in Pobal's own banding, so 'economically deprived' overstates it. |
| About 50% of metered electricity consumption in the Dublin and Meath region in 2024 was attributable to data centres. | accurate | CSO MEC03 gives metered consumption by county and Dublin postal district, but 9,090 GWh (2024) is 'Not coded': large users left unclassified for confidentiality. CSO MEC02 puts data centres at 6,974 GWh, so data centres are most of the uncoded block. CRU method reproduced: Dublin postal districts + Co. Dublin + Co. Meath coded = 7,127 GWh; add all 6,974 GWh of data centres -> 49.5% (2024). Same method gives 47.6% for 2023, matching CRU's 48%. |
| In 2024 data centres consumed 22% of Ireland's electricity, making Ireland a global outlier. | accurate | CSO MEC02: 6,974 of 31,904 GWh = 21.9% of metered electricity in 2024. Outlier: Brodie's Oireachtas evidence puts the Netherlands at 3-5% and Singapore at 7-9%. |
| The national 0.13% share is misleading because data centres cluster in the water-stressed Greater Dublin Area. | mostly accurate | The national share holds up: 0.13% (2021, Government) is in line with the 0.17% we sum from 2025 AERs and Uisce Éireann's 'less than 0.3%' (Jul 2026). Clustering confirmed: 44 of 55 operating campuses in our directory are in the four Dublin councils and 48 are in the GDA (87%; 94% of the 51 we can place). The report's 87% Dublin / 93% GDA used older industry counts. |
| Each MWh of data-centre load yields ~750 kWh of recoverable heat, used in Tallaght district heating. | can't be tested with public data | No public operating data from the Tallaght scheme lets us test the recovered-heat figure. The context slide has aged. '29% of demand by 2028' is EirGrid's 2019 forecast; the outturn was 23.2% in 2025. |
| Data-centre demand raises power-system costs by 6% (carbon policy) to 9-15% (renewable targets). | can't be tested with public data | This is a counterfactual optimisation result; no public dataset can reproduce it. One premise has changed since 2020: the extra demand was not met mainly by new domestic plant. From 2020 to 2025 data centres used 4.6 TWh more, wind was flat at ~11.8 TWh, Irish gas generation fell, and net imports rose from ~0 to ~6.1 TWh (Ember; EirGrid's ROI series gives -0.5 to 5.8 TWh). |
| The PSO levy is allocated by contribution to peak demand, so households and SMEs pick up part of the extra renewable subsidy that data-centre demand creates. | mostly accurate | The mechanism still holds. CRU's 2025/26 PSO decision allocates the levy across domestic, small and medium/large customers 'in proportion to the ratio of these demand peaks'. Households carry 34.23% of the levy but used 27.5% of metered electricity in 2025 (CSO MEC05). Medium/large users, including data centres, carry 55.71% while using ~62%. Flat loads like data centres add little to the peak, so they pay less than their energy share. |