A 77-year-old man said he had to “scrape himself off the floor” after recently receiving an electricity bill for €1,678.
Gerry Clarke, from Ballivor, Co Meath, received the bill from Electric Ireland covering a 64-day period, from December 9th, 2022 to February 10th, 2023.
Mr Clarke, who lives with his son and daughter-in-law, said before the war in Ukraine his average electricity bill over a two-month period was €290 while his most recent bill before the current one was €671.
“I had to scrape myself off the floor when I saw it [the bill]. I couldn’t believe it,” he told The Irish Times.
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[ Help is at hand to deal with those shocking energy billsOpens in new window ]
“I wasn’t sure whether to laugh or cry. The sad part of it is, I can handle myself but there’s a lot of people who can’t and the bills will be running higher and higher and those people will be homeless. I’m not going to pay it, I’m going to fight it. I’m not sure what that will be, but I’ll do my research first.
“I was tossing and turning the first night after getting it but I’m going to be proactive and fight it.”
Mr Clarke said he uses oil to heat his home, while electricity is mostly used for lighting, some cooking appliances and a water pump.
“We keep horses so there would be electricity used for their walker machine and outdoor lights for an hour, but this has always been the case. Nothing has changed,” he said.
“My son and his wife are out all day long and it’s mostly just me. We’re not big users of electricity. There would only be a slight bit of cooking done. We had a smart meter put in a few months ago and that seems to be when the problems started.
“At this stage in your life, you should be cutting your costs but they’re going up. It took me 45 minutes to get through to Electric Ireland but they just try and fob you off.”
Mr Clarke’s bill was initially raised by Sinn Féin TD Johnny Guirke in the Dáil on Wednesday, who also referenced a 100-year-old woman from his constituency, Kitty, who had recently received an Electric Ireland bill for €957 for a two-month period.
He said the Government and Minister for the Environment Eamon Ryan “need to get the finger out and deal with these energy companies who are making massive profits on the back of pensioners and the Irish public in a cost of living crisis”.
In response, Taoiseach Leo Varadkar said he had the same experience speaking to constituents and that many people were “really shocked” by utility bills that had landed in recent weeks.
[ Two-month electricity bill of €957 leaves 100-year-old woman ‘gobsmacked’Opens in new window ]
He said the Government was acting to address the issue. He said it had extended the 9 per cent VAT rate on electricity and gas until the end of October and had introduced targeted welfare payments, adding there was another €200 electricity credit coming for householders.
“We’re not going to stop here, the next step is the introduction of a windfall tax so that we can take back some of the profits of the energy companies and give them back to people to help them with their bills,” Mr Varadkar said.
Speaking on Thursday, the Minister for Public Expenditure and Reform Paschal Donohoe said “if and when” there is an improvement in the cost of energy to companies supplying Ireland, that reductions are “passed on at the soonest point” to hard-pressed households and businesses.
The minister was responding to Fine Gael TD Colm Burke who said “we are hearing of many retired people receiving electricity bills in excess of €1,000″.
Mr Burke said companies such as Electric Ireland were passing on reductions, due to the extension in the 9 per cent VAT rate, to the commercial sector but not households.
Mr Donohoe said “it can’t take months for the price of bills to go up and years for the price of bills to go down if we are seeing stability or improvement in the affordability of energy to the companies who in turn supply that energy to Ireland”.
“We will be monitoring the situation closely,” he said.
