THE SOCIETY of St Vincent de Paul has appealed to energy companies to deal compassionately with people struggling to pay energy bills.
The appeal came after it emerged that more than 110,000 households had entered payment plans with Bord Gáis and the ESB having had difficulties meeting their bills.
The Oireachtas Committee on Communications, Energy and Natural Resources also said yesterday it would call Bord Gáis, ESB, Airtricity and the Commission for Energy Regulation to a meeting to discuss the difficulties.
About 90,000 ESB customers and 23,000 Bord Gáis customers entered into payment plans since the beginning of the year.
More than 16,000 Bord Gáis customers were 120 days in arrears with their bills.
The company has been entering into payments plans with customers in arrears every five minutes, and 2,500 households had their electricity cut off every month this year.
Bord Gáis chief executive John Mullins said the profile of those in difficulties had changed. Over half of them could be described as middle class, and were mainly people who were already having difficulty meeting mortgage repayments.
Utility suppliers yesterday said they were doing their best to help people in arrears.
A spokesman for the Society of St Vincent de Paul said it was “ludicrous”, given the financial climate, that the regulator insisted fees for disconnection and reconnection were charged. In the case of electricity, the fee was just over €197 and €140 in the case of gas.
“These fees must be waived,” the spokesman said.
The society also called on Eircom to reverse its decision to only accept a minimum of €20 in weekly payments from October.
“We believe that it will lead to increased levels of bad debt and result in the more vulnerable in society being cut off from essential services,” the spokesman said.
Electricity suppliers have been called before the Oireachtas committee on energy as TDs and Senators also expressed concerns about growing disconnection rates, reconnection costs and prices.
Labour’s spokeswoman on energy Liz McManus accused Minister for Energy Eamon Ryan of having avoided dealing with the issue. Ms McManus also said a plan to rebrand Bord Gáis and the ESB, which she said would cost €40 million, should be scrapped.
A spokeswoman for Mr Ryan said while energy prices had dropped by about 20 per cent over the last two years, the issue was one of concern for the Government.
An energy affordability strategy would be published in the coming weeks, she added.