Government’s winter credit brought down Ireland’s electricity prices to match European counterparts

Customers in arrears owe an average of €436.73 on their bills while gas customers owe €186.72, according to the latest figures, up to last November.

Ireland’s electricity prices are so high compared to the EU average that only the Government’s winter credit to all households brought them in line with European counterparts, a new department report has found.

An analysis by the Department of the Environment of the electricity credit scheme to ease the burden on households found that Ireland was in the minority of European peers in not putting price caps in place on bills during the Ukraine crisis.

In response to the huge inflation in energy prices that accelerated after the Russian invasion of Ukraine, the Government here introduced a range of measures, including an electricity credit to all households in the country giving them money off their bills.

The first wave saw €600 given to households across several bill cycles. That amount has been tapered downwards in consecutive budgets but the total amount given to households will have topped €1,500 by the end of this month.

Arrears

The report comes as the latest figures from the Commission for Regulation of Utilities (CRU) show that just short of 400,000 electricity and gas customers are in arrears on their bills.

Customers in arrears owe an average of €436.73 on their bills while gas customers owe €186.72, according to the latest figures, up to last November.

According to the departmental report on the electricity credit schemes, 95% of all eligible households had received all of the first three tranches of payments.

During the third energy credit scheme, the department said it had “built on learnings” from the previous two schemes and introduced a “low-usage threshold” to prevent the payment from being applied to vacant houses.

“This is expected to result in savings of €40 million to the Exchequer,” it said.

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Prior to the energy crisis, 11 EU member states already had some kind of price setting in place for energy bills. During the crisis, a further seven countries introduced some form of price regulation for households.

Ireland was not among them. The department said a “majority of member states implemented retail price regulation in some form”.

While such steps were not taken in Ireland, the department insisted that energy affordability more broadly would be an area of “increased focus” going forward and said the Government “must continue to ensure a just transition, that households are empowered to become active consumers with control over their energy consumption”.