ESB customers face €60-a-year bill hike

ELECTRICITY bills will rise by at least €60 a year if ESB is given the go-ahead for its latest price hike. The State-owned company is seeking increases of at least 10% to offset soaring fuel costs.

ESB chairman Tadhg O'Donoghue said the company had hoped to ask for a modest rise, but with the price of oil and coal more than doubling in the past two years it had no choice but to raise prices for the third time in two years.

"It will be significant. Fuel alone would justify a price rise probably in double digits; certainly it is highly unlikely that single digits would help.