Charity warns Bord Gáis off further price hike

The country’s largest charity has warned against further hikes in gas and electricity prices as Bord Gáis customers wait to hear if the energy regulator will approve plans for a 7% increase in charges.

The Society of St Vincent de Paul says it has seen requests for help with fuel costs treble in four years, forcing it to spend a record e10.37m clearing bills and buying oil and coal for people in need in 2011.

Figures for 2012 are still being compiled from the charity’s 1,200 local chapters, but its head of social justice, John-Mark McCafferty, said the demand was still high.

“It is taking up a very significant share of our resources — almost a quarter of all our direct expenditure to households in need — so assisting families and individuals with payment towards either gas or electricity bills, or oil or solid fuel, takes up a very substantial amount of effort,” he said.

Electric Ireland says 10% of its customers — more than 130,000 individual bill-holders — are in arrears, while Bord Gáis has around 200,000 customers in various kinds of difficulty with bills.

More than 25,000 of its gas customers are in arrears with no resolution worked out yet, a further 100,000 were put on repayment plans last year, and a further additional 80,000 are using pre-paid pay-as-you-go meters with a proportion of every sum they pay going directly off their arrears.

If Bord Gáis’s request for a price increase is granted, it will be the third increase in as many years and customers will be paying nearly 40% more than they were paying in 2011.

The Commission for Energy Regulation has opened a public consultation on the company’s request as is normal procedure but while the regulator said it welcomed submissions from members of the public, usually only a handful of charities and business interests reply.

Mr McCafferty said the consultation process was largely about going through the motions. “The regulators know or at least they have a fair idea what they are going to do. Minister Pat Rabbitte keeps saying we are price takers, not price makers, and there’s almost an air of inevitability about what will happen.” Submissions can be made up to Aug 21 and the regulator will make a decision on the price increase shortly afterwards. Electric Ireland, which has hiked its prices by 18% over the past two years, said yesterday it could not rule out another increase before the end of this year.