“Although the ESB is only at the point of further increasing the price of their product it has been announced that 110,000 ESB/Bord Gais customers are on payment plans confirming Ireland’s social crisis”, stated Seymour Crawford, Fine Gael T.D. for Cavan/Monaghan.

“At the time of the last Budget Minister Lenihan advised us that the country had turned a corner but clearly 110,000 people who have had to agree payment plans for their ordinary light and heat must wonder what corner we have turned. The figure of 110,000 homes does not include the thousands of others who are only scraping through by making deep sacrifices elsewhere. In fact John Mullins of Bord Gais has warned that a significant number of struggling customers are mortgage holders and even described this as a ‘social recession’. I believe however that this is a social crisis.”

“The new carbon tax introduced by this Fianna Fail led Government has increased the price of briquettes, natural gas, fuel and every other form of heat or power that these low paid or social welfare people use. Once again it is the hardworking families dealing with the fallout of the Government’s economic crash who are being put under serious pressure. The Government must use the Budget, if not before, to give significant relief to these people so that they will not have to survive in cold or frozen homes this winter.”

“ESB and Board Gais have done the right thing by publishing these shocking figures. They are also helping out in whatever way they can by providing budget plans but of course if they do cut off power there is no justification for the extraordinary level of charge that they force such hard-pressed people to pay when they apply for reconnection”, concluded Deputy Crawford.