Taoiseach Leo Varadkar said he is “very concerned” at the number of people in arrears on their gas bills and encouraged them to engage with their suppliers to seek advice on the available options.
Almost a quarter of all household gas customers have been in arrears in paying their bills this year, according to the latest figures from energy watchdog the Commission for the Regulation of Utilities (CRU).
The Joint Oireachtas Committee on Environment and Climate Action is hearing from the CRU on Tuesday.
Energy prices – particularly wholesale gas prices – rose sharply last year in the wake of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
Some 160,399 domestic gas customers – 23 per cent of the overall total – were in arrears as of March 31st, up more than 20,600 since the end of last year.
There was an improving situation in terms of the number of domestic electricity customers in arrears with 199,790 – or 9 per cent – said to be behind on their bills at the end of the first quarter of 2023.
That was down almost 27,900 since the end of 2022, and the committee on environment and climate action was told on Wednesday morning the number of domestic electricity customers in arrears remained below pre-Ukraine war levels.
The series of €200 emergency electricity credits brought in by the Government are believed to have helped reduce the number of electricity customers in arrears.
There was no similar scheme for gas customers.
Speaking to reporters ahead of a Cabinet meeting on Tuesday, Mr Varadkar said: “I’m very concerned to hear that over 20 per cent of people are in arrears on their gas bills.”
He said the proportion of electricity customers in arrears is “a lot lower”.
Mr Varadkar said: “That may be linked, in part to the fact that the credits were taken off your electricity bill rather than your gas bill - for good reasons because everybody has an electricity bill, most people don’t have a gas bill.”
However, he said the situation related to gas customers “is a matter for concern”.
Mr Varadkar said there is an expectation that electricity and gas prices will go down later in the year adding: “Certainly we’re calling on the companies to do that”.
He also said: “If anyone is in arrears the best thing you can do is to contact the company to seek advice.
“There are options available and it’s best to deal with it rather than not to for lots of different reasons.”
Minister for Environment Eamon Ryan meanwhile said he had a “real concern” about the high numbers of people in arrears on their gas bills, with a quarter of all household gas customers behind on their bills.
However, he said it would be difficult to support gas customers in the same way as electricity users.
“On the electricity side we’ve seen our supports really work, so every time the level of people in arrears started to tip up in the electricity side, we’ve put in a €200 payment and it dropped by about 60,000, 70,000 customers every time coming out of arrears and being able to pay their bills,” he said “It is more difficult on the gas side because it’s harder to target gas customers. Everyone has an electricity bill not everyone has a gas connection.”
The best way to reduce energy bills was to switch to renewables, he said.
“One of the ways to change things is particularly putting in solar panels. It’s a way of lowering costs and switching quickly to renewables”.
The Government was already supporting households with sustainable energy grants, which could lower energy use prices “immediately” he said. “Grants to allow people retrofit their homes so they use less energy and provide alternative energy supplies, the likes of solar panels, that will bring down prices by something like 30 per cent. That one measure alone, that’s the best way of bringing prices down immediately.”
