New figures from the Commission from the Regulation of Utilities (CRU) show that 322,298 households are now in arrears – more than at any point since available records began.
Lynn Boylan MEP criticised the government’s lack of support for households – setting up a taskforce and axing the energy credit – to its approach to supporting big business – showering them with new subsidies and discounts on network charges
Lynn Boylan MEP said:
“This is another stain on the record of this Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael government. There are more people struggling to pay their bills now than at any point since before the Russian invasion of Ukraine.
“Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael sits on their hands while households are left to struggle by themselves.
“The best they could come up with was another taskforce. Well there are now almost 24,000 more households behind on bills since the government announced its taskforce talking shop in June last year.
“The next big idea was to axe the energy credits in the absence of evidence that the need had gone away. But there are almost 22,000 more households behind since the government pulled the rug out from households by cancelling the energy credits in Budget announced last October.
“This is what the cliff edge we warned about looks like.
“Meanwhile, the government got approval from the EU for a €300 million subsidy for big business. That’s the same cost as giving every household an energy credit of €125.
“The energy regulator announced how households will face a €411 spike in the cost to fund grid upgrades, while data centres will get a €150,0002 discount,
“It’s scandalous that the government continues to greenlight data centres despite them pushing our electricity prices to the highest in Europe and hundreds of thousands of households behind in their bills.
“Enough is enough. It’s time that the households got the sort of treatment that big business expects.”
