The price of the average residential gas heating bill is set to rise by approximately €190 a year from the start of October, following a decision by the energy regulator yesterday.
In a move described as a "hammer blow to manufacturing" by small business representatives, the Commission for Energy Regulation has said it is planning to approve a 25 per cent increase in the price An Bord Gáis can charge residential and small business customers.
The latest price rise, which is inclusive of VAT, comes at a time when both the VHI and the ESB have recently been granted price rises of 12.5 per cent and 2.5 per cent respectively.
Residential customers have already seen the cost of their home heating bills rise by 20 per cent since April 2003.
This followed a price freeze from the mid-1980s until that date.
Bord Gáis, which had originally applied to the energy regulator for a price increase of 34 per cent, said any increase was "naturally regrettable".
However, in a market where wholesale prices were now 69 per cent higher than they were a year ago, a rise in prices for customers was "unavoidable".
Meanwhile, the Fine Gael Spokesman on Communications and Natural Resources, Bernard Durkan, called the proposed increase "premature".
"The proposed increase, if approved, will impact, most seriously on the domestic consumer and the small business sector and will put jobs at risk. This is unacceptable and Minister Noel Dempsey must act," Mr Durkan said.
"It is high time that the Minister informed the industry that the tendency to use the issue of international fuel prices to hike up the prices here has become far too common and, if allowed to continue, will cause serious problems to both the domestic and industrial economy," he concluded.