Record numbers struggling to pay energy bills 

Concern has been expressed in Waterford over the growing number of people who are struggling to pay their electricity and gas bills with thousands of people going into arears.

Sinn Féin TD, Deputy David Cullinane described the situation as reaching a "crisis point".

The Waterford TD was made his comments in response to figures from the CRU (Commission for Regulation of Utilities), which showed 318,000 Irish households are in arrears on their electricity bills - averaging €511.

In addition the figures also revealed that 179,500 households are in arrears on gas bills.

“Households up and down the state are at crisis point as record numbers are unable to pay electricity and gas bills," said Deputy Cullinane.

"For the first time there are over half a million-household energy accounts in arrears on their bills," he added.

However, he said even those figures didn't paint a completely accurate picture, commenting: "This doesn’t even count all the people who silently disconnect when they can’t put money in their pay as you go metre or all the people at home with empty oil tanks."

“It can no longer be denied that things are getting worse," said Deputy Cullinane.

"The number of people that can’t pay their electricity bills has exploded over the last three years," he added, highlighting that "one in four" can't pay their gas bills

“On top of all this, we have seen energy companies move to increase electricity and gas prices further in recent weeks," he said.

“The Government needs to wake up to the scale of this crisis, and prepare and bring forward emergency measures that include energy credits and tax the windfall profits of energy companies," he added.

“Energy credits were never the full answer, but they are vital to take pressure off workers and families and buy time to make the necessary reforms that the Government has so far refused to make to reduce the cost of electricity.”