EDITOR - As an organisation which has warned of the toll data centres have taken on our ecosystems, our bills and our infrastructure, Friends of the Earth Ireland is extremely concerned about the new Private Wires policy introduced by the Minister of the Environment this week.
We believe this policy will intensify the inequality in our energy system, and does nothing to limit the energy demand of large users, namely data centres, who now account for 22% of Ireland’s electricity consumption. The policy risks locking in greater fossil fuel dependency, undermining public trust in the energy transition and increasing utility bills.
Despite committing to decarbonisation and meeting climate obligations in the Programme for Government, the Private Wires policy makes no reference to the risks of new data centre demand which is choking our energy system, making it harder and harder to roll out renewables fairly in a way that actually benefits communities.
Instead Private Wires looks like it will live up to its name - creating a two-tier energy system that will benefit data centres who are given the green light to build their own private grids, competing with the public good for access to renewables, labour and land. Companies with more revenue than the State will be contributing less to grid upkeep and competing with the ESB for energy projects.
For us this begs the question - who is this policy being written for? We echo our call to Government to grasp the issue at the root and tackle rising energy demand by issuing a moratorium on data centre expansion in Ireland. Only by reducing the unlimited rise of one the largest energy users in the State can we decarbonise our grid in a way that puts fairness, climate goals and affordability for households at the centre of the transition.
Friends of the Earth Ireland,
Dublin 2.
End the suffering
EDITOR – ‘The whip is plied and the rein is chucked and often a rough, scolding voice cries out, ‘go along, you lazy beast’. And then another slash of the whip, when all the time we are doing our very best to get along.’ So wrote Anna Sewell 150 years ago in her classic novel, Black Beauty.
How horrified Anna Sewell would be that a century and a half after the publication of a book she hoped would ‘induce kindness, sympathy and an understanding treatment of horses’, these magnificent animals are not only still being whipped but whipped in plain sight with impunity.
Many suffer painful injuries (broken necks, legs, etc) during races and are destroyed. Like their canine counterparts in greyhound racing, if they don’t make the grade or fail to keep winning money for owners, they are often mercilessly killed.
Others are subjected to grotesque wind surgery. This mutilation involves cutting into a horse, tying back a vocal cord and the sack behind it - or completely removing them with a scalpel - before stitching the poor creature back up again.
Horse racing is steeped in suffering and death. If you love horses, don’t bet on races or attend race meetings.
Philip Kiernan,
Irish Council Against Blood Sports.
Gaza humanitarian city is cruel and inhumane
EDITOR - The punishment of the civilian Palestinian population continues in Gaza. Israel has unveiled its plan to put 600,000 Palestinians into a humanitarian city or camp in Gaza where each person will be vetted before entering by Israel’s defence forces. They will not be allowed to leave for any reason - unless they agree to leave Gaza.
Some human rights lawyers in Israel spoke out recently against the plan saying Israel will be breaking international human rights laws. British lawyer Baroness Kennedy said on the BBC World Service what is now happening is ‘genocidal behaviour’ by Israel in Gaza.
In May 2025 the Israel-US Gaza Humanitarian Foundation was set up to replace aid agencies like the UN whose spokespersons are in despair over the haphazard way aid is now given out. It seems daily a dozen or more Palestinians looking for flour etc are shot arriving or going from these militarised aid centres. Independent aid agencies are still restricted in amounts of aid allowed in.
What is happening to Gaza is similar to the worst of World War II on a population. At the same time we hope Hamas will return the remaining hostages to Israel.
Israel’s government is on record for seeing Ireland as an ‘opponent’ to what they are doing in Gaza. It is because our history saw the colonisation of Ireland and forced displacements of people from their lands over 800 years. Our ancestors survived – which is why we the descendants are here today.
Mary Sullivan,
Cork.
