Inflation makes everyone poorer, particularly those on fixed incomes. In Ireland, energy costs have a far greater impact on inflation than in anywhere else in the EU. I want to put three practical suggestions to the Minister. Our electricity prices are among the most expensive in Europe, with Irish families paying, on average, €180 extra for electricity annually. This is partly as a result of Irish families being forced to subsidise the cost of green electricity, grid connections and backup supplies for existing and already-planned speculative data centres with no substantial employment dividend here in Ireland. The Government decided in 2018 to stop the practice whereby those struggling to pay electricity bills were subsidising the speculative developers and instead make data centres pay their own electricity costs. Therefore, the Government must reduce the cost by stopping the data centre subsidy.

Tomorrow the European Council will discuss the possibility of block-purchasing natural gas, which has the potential to reduce our electricity costs. However, we have no way of storing the gas, even though we have two potential facilities off the Cork coast — the decommissioned Kinsale and Seven Heads gas fields. When I was Minister, I asked my Department to assess the potential of these wells for carbon capture and storage and their potential for the storage of natural gas. In December 2020, in advance of the Dáil deciding on the decommissioning of the Kinsale wells, I sought a copy of this assessment. Sadly, this vital information was not made available to the Dáil, but we were promised that the assessment would be completed by the end of last year. I have now been informed that it will be early 2023 before this assessment will be published, nearly six years after the process commenced. This is far too late for Ireland to capitalise on any natural gas price discount from the European Union.

Carbon tax is supposed to be an environmental tax to drive behavioural change but the current carbon tax model is flawed in this regard because the goal is about bringing in more taxes rather than driving change. If we are serious about moving away from our dependence on fossil fuels, we need a model of carbon taxation that is actually fluid. We must do so by taking into account the ever-changing cost of a barrel of oil. If carbon taxes increase significantly and the price of oil collapses, they will not bring about the type of step change we actually require. When the price of oil increases sharply, it has a direct impact on the cost of living for families as well as a devastating impact on our small, open economy. We are seeing this impact today. It will get even worse when carbon taxes are increased in five weeks' time because Ireland is more exposed to price volatility than most other EU countries.

I thank the Deputy. We are over time. The Minister should respond.

There are reports that the Government is considering a swing mechanism on fossil fuel taxes to address-----

I thank the Deputy. We are over time.

-----oil-price volatility, but this seems to have been shelved. Why is that?

I thank Deputy Naughten for raising those very important matters. I will answer each question he has put to me in turn.

The Government will of course participate in any collective procedures or arrangements that are possible within the EU to examine how we can establish more clearly the certainty of supply and manage the affordability challenge that I know so many in the House are concerned about. As Members know, the Taoiseach is travelling to the European Council meeting. One of the key issues will be how we can accelerate our progress towards energy independence, with targets set for both 2023 and 2030. It will be a matter of determining whether there are new policies that the European Commission and EU can put in place that would allow us to respond collectively to the issues the Deputy is raising. I am sure the Government will view any such proposals from the Commission favourably.

I take issue with the Deputy’s reference to speculative data centres. As he knows, many of the data centres located in Ireland, if not all of them, are associated with companies that are very large employers. The presence of a data centre in Ireland should not be seen in isolation; it should be seen in the context of companies that are employing hundreds, if not thousands, of people all over our country. Particularly with the changing world we are in and the kinds of changes that will happen with regard to corporate tax, an environment in which data centres can be associated with the ability to employ large numbers is a real asset for Ireland.

On the Deputy’s point on the sharing of the report, I am afraid I am not aware of the status of the report and why it may not have been made available at the point the Deputy indicated. However, I will certainly follow up with the Minister for the Environment, Climate and Communications, Deputy Eamon Ryan, on it. As the Deputy knows, the Minister and his Department are working on a new strategy on energy security and independence, the need for which has been emphasised by the dramatic and deadly developments of recent weeks.

On the Deputy’s point on carbon tax, I am well aware of the model he has proposed. In fairness to him, he has raised this on many occasions, in the Dáil and elsewhere. The one difficulty with the model he makes a case for is that it gives no clarity at all to the Government regarding what our future revenue from carbon taxation could be. As the Deputy knows, carbon tax plays a role in helping us to fund all the changes that he and the Government want to see happen regarding retrofitting and how we can make progress towards energy independence.

The point I am making on data centres is that families that are struggling to pay electricity bills should not be subsidising the cost of electricity going into the centres. It is immoral and needs to be stopped.

May I make a final suggestion to Deputy Donohoe in his role as Minister for Finance and chairman of ECOFIN. We need to see, across the EU, a review of the commodity-trading rules for both oil and gas. While oil production has been maintained in recent times, we have seen price fluctuations in the commodity markets and, as a result, incentives for people to delay deliveries, which have led to the situation in Dublin Port whereby we had only a one-day stock of diesel. There are people lining their pockets and sitting at keyboards while families here in Ireland are trying to decide whether to pay for fuel and food. We need to regulate this.

As we know, the Minister, Deputy Eamon Ryan, has already said we need to consider the impact of very high energy use and the price the Deputy’s constituents and other citizens pay for energy. However, I would still make the point to the Deputy that the very data centres he is referring to are an invaluable element and will be even more valuable regarding how Ireland can continue to be a place in which very large employers are present.

On the factors that influence the price of energy and the impact of speculative trading in that regard, the Deputy makes a fair and important point. The Commission is considering the ways in which we can better manage the price of energy and give greater certainty regarding the pressures that might arise in the coming period.

Some of the markets to which the Deputy referred play a valuable role in helping smaller businesses hedge against a rise in the price of fuel in the future.