Three of the State’s four gas providers will increase their prices from tomorrow with the fourth provider having already rolled out price increases of its own last month.
Bord Gáis Energy, ESB Electric Ireland and Flogas will all raise their domestic gas charges effective from tomorrow in a move which will more than €150 on to the average household’s gas bill each year. Airtricity increased its prices likewise several week ago.
Bord Gáis Energy, the only company to have its prices controlled by the Commission for Energy Regulation (CER), applied for a 28 per cent rise in its residential gas tariffs in July blaming a steep climb in wholesale prices since the start of the year. However, the regulator said that it was prepared to sanction an increase of 6 per cent less than that.
While the price increase is not as high as it could have been the 22 per cent increase will still see the average domestic gas bill of €720 a year climb to nearly €900 annually.
The ESB is also increasing its electricity prices by 15 per cent from today in a move which will add over €150 to consumers’ annual electricity bill. Its two rivals in the market, Bord Gais and Airtricity have already increased their prices by 12 per cent. .
“I don’t think many people have fully grasped what these increases are going to do to their budgets,” said Dermott Jewell, the chief executive of the Consumers Association of Ireland (CAI) today. “You can’t really feel the pain until it is inflicted and it is going to be inflicted from today,” he added.
He said that the that people would either have to cut down or cut things out of their monthly spend which would have a knock-on affect on the retail sector. “I think most people have cut down as much as they can.
“There seems to be this perception in some quarters that consumers can continue to take these constant price increases across a whole range of things but the reality is that they simple can not,” Mr Jewell said. “These price increases are massive and are going to hit people really hard.
