Electricity prices - ESB should be more generous

THE announcement by ESB Electric Ireland earlier this week that it will offer very worthwhile price reductions to customers who are “in good standing” was very welcome.

Anything that eases the burden on so many families or individuals struggling to cope with our new realities must be seen in a positive light.

There was a sting in the tail though. The company decreed that the new, cheaper arrangements will not be available to more than 100,000 customers whose accounts have fallen into arrears over the last year. Very many of these people will be in that situation because they have lost their jobs or endured pay cuts that have changed their lives very much for the worse.

Of course people must pay their bills — sometimes even if someone else runs up the multi-billion euro bill — but extraordinary times call for extraordinary measures and generosity. These are such times.

There may be a hard-core minority of that 100,000 who are able to pay their electricity bills but brazen it out and decide not to. In time their lights will be switched off and good luck to them. But the sad and frightening reality is that most of those whose ESB bill is in arrears have their back to the wall and are facing life-defining choices about how they use their income. In some instances it may be as hard a choice as paying the ESB bill or feeding your family. Rational people do not ignore an electricity bill unless they have very good reasons to do so.

No one in this society wants anyone to be in this terrible position and most Irish people would want to help them. If that means people who are really struggling get a modest enough break and are allowed to enjoy the new, reduced rates immediately then so be it. Who will object? Which citadel will fall? After all, it’s not as if we’re offering them a tax amnesty.

If we must bail out the private risk-takers who bankrolled Anglo Irish Bank and Irish Nationwide so they could break the country then surely we, through the ESB, can throw a frayed enough lifeline to families no longer in “good standing” with a State-owned utility company whose employees enjoy some of the very highest pay rates in their sector in the world.

The National Consumer Agency (NCA) articulated what a great number of people felt when it called on the ESB to review its exclusion proposals and asked the company to give “vulnerable consumers in need the chance to benefit” from reduced prices.

So too did Enterprise Minister Richard Bruton when he urged the company to reconsider its policy.

In recent decades semi-state companies developed the commercial autonomy they needed to become successful businesses. It was important and right that they did so but it may be that in doing so they lost sight of their potential to build a stronger and more caring society.

This is as good an issue as any for Government to insist that semi-state policies reflect its wishes. If they cannot change the ESB’s position on this what hope have we of seeing the kind of real and deep reform we so very badly need? It’s time Government stopped dropping hints and issued instructions.