FAMILIES IN financial difficulty will not have their electricity or gas disconnected this winter if they agree to a pay plan or the installation of a pay-as-you-go meter, Minister for Communications, Energy and Natural Resources Pat Rabbitte has said.
Mr Rabbitte announced yesterday that he had agreed this with the energy companies, having secured the approval of the regulator.
He said he was concerned at the impact of gas and electricity price increases on vulnerable households, and he would shortly submit a memorandum to the Cabinet on an energy-affordability strategy.
The various supports to address fuel poverty, which came under the aegis of the Minister for Social Protection, were very important, he added.
“In addition, a fundamental element of the fight against fuel poverty must also be improving the energy efficiency of the homes of those in fuel poverty,” said Mr Rabbitte.
“The warmer homes scheme, which is funded by my department, plays a key role in this regard and it is my objective to see this scheme maintained and indeed accelerated,” he added.
Addressing the Oireachtas committee on communications, natural resources and agriculture, he also said that over the longer term, energy-efficient and well-insulated homes were a permanent and indeed most cost-efficient way of addressing fuel poverty.
When committee members expressed concern about the ability of some families to fund a pay-as-you-go meter, Mr Rabbitte said he accepted that in some cases there would not be the wherewithal to have it function as intended.
“But at least there will not be a disconnection because the person does not have a meter or, alternatively, a pay plan,” he added.
He said the problem of disconnections was currently exacerbated by the cost of reconnecting. “So at least that will not be there,” he added.
Mr Rabbitte said it was sometimes claimed that Ireland had the highest electricity and gas prices in the EU. However, Eurostat data, published recently by the Sustainable Energy Authority of Ireland, showed Irish prices at the end of last year were competitive when compared with our European neighbours. “In other words our prices are about average,” he added.
“Over the two years to the end of 2010, the two predominant trends in Irish electricity and gas prices, for domestic and business consumers, were convergence to the EU average and falling prices.”
Ireland, he said, was very vulnerable to volatile international gas and oil prices. Over the past year, international energy prices had risen significantly, with the wholesale gas price for the coming winter more than 30 per cent higher than for last winter.
He said the recent approval of a 21.7 per cent increase in the Bord Gáis tariff from October was the first price increase for the company’s residential gas customers since September 2008. It followed three successive price cuts.
“The increase in the price of gas internationally is also the cause of the recent increases in the price of electricity,” the Minister added.
He said he was determined, in consultation with the regulator and the energy companies, to ensure everything was done to restrain costs which were within the State’s control.
He would shortly meet the chairpersons and management of the State-owned energy companies to impress that imperative on them.
Mr Rabbitte also said provision of high-speed broadband was a key strategic national goal.
In tandem with the roll-out of basic broadband to consumers, he was working to ensure the roll-out of 100mbps to second-level schools.
