Pearse Doherty (Donegal, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

-----were reached by all the businesses, then that is the figure. Let us not interrupt. I know how energy and gas prices work, as I said. First, they are signalled in advance when they come in. That is why a scheme is introduced not for a couple of years but for a couple of months in order that it can be reassessed at that point in time. Second, gas is purchased on the market months in advance. Issues such as the war in Ukraine were felt by customers about eight or nine months afterwards and so on and so forth. That is why there will be a lag even when things, hopefully, resolve, and there will still be a long tail to the issues in respect of high energy costs.

I am not questioning the Minister's figures at all. The only point I am making is that his accusations and the mud he threw have no basis. He cannot assure himself, and nor can I, on energy prices. He can, however, extrapolate, as he has done, listen to energy companies and the Department of the Environment, Climate and Communications, and try to figure out where energy prices are going. Therefore, the upper limit of this measure, which could be €30 billion, will never be reached because we will not have a situation where unit prices will balloon to that level, or a situation where all 400,000 businesses will be at that point. Equally, the buffer we put in as part of our proposal, which was a 50% increase by December in respect of energy costs, was a significant one that would have dealt with any issues.

The key thing is the Minister did not want to discuss the policy merits of what has happened in Austria, Germany and many other countries. As I said, the Minister wanted to play the man. That is wrong. I am not doing that. I am drawing comparisons. I am not questioning the Minister's rationale and extrapolation on this issue. I am making the point that the upper limit of this scheme, and the maximum amount this could actually cost, which it will not for all the reasons I outlined, could be in the region of €30 billion.