Pearse Doherty (Donegal, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

I have already answered. Let me make this point. When the Minister's officials present to us the unit price projections that I asked for and, in fairness, he has said will be provided between now and the end of this scheme at the end of February, this point will be very clear. Like him, and his modelling and engagement with the Department of the Environment, Climate and Communications, we also looked at what the potential costs of this would be and we also talked to energy providers. It should be remembered that the Minister's scheme is for both electricity and gas while ours only applies to electricity. Therefore, there will not be, in the remotest scenario, a 50% increase in energy costs from December on, which was modelled into our scheme. The reality is we can hypothetically talk about the Minister's scheme costing up to €30 billion, which he accepted, or what the scheme I put forward could hypothetically cost, but in the real world we know where unit prices are likely to go over the period between now and the end of February and what their upper limit is likely to be, given the forward signalling on energy. That is the point I am making. I will rest my point at that.