More than 1m Electric Ireland residential customers are to benefit from a 5.2% cut in their electricity bills thanks to the company’s third unit rate price reduction in less than two years.

Electric Ireland has become the third energy supplier in just over a month to cut prices for households.

SSE Airtricity has fired the latest shots in a price war among domestic energy providers by unveiling a 20% unit rate discount to new and returning customers, which it claims is Ireland’s cheapest home electricity offer.

When psychologist Joan Freeman founded Pieta House, the national centre for the prevention of self-harm or suicide, it was to address a taboo subject that was little discussed and rarely understood.