Household bills for energy are among highest in Europe

IRISH households are paying some of the highest energy prices in Europe.

And the high prices are being blamed on the fact we import so much energy – despite having two gas fields – and we still don’t have our renewable technology up to the level of other EU countries.

Ireland’s position could be even worse as the figures don’t take account of a recent raft of energy price increases announced earlier this summer, which will see electricity prices increase by almost 10% in some cases and gas by almost 13%.

The latest EU stats released yesterday show Ireland has the second highest gas prices in the EU after Sweden and fourth most expensive electricity after Belgium, Denmark and Portugal.

Irish customers pay around 20c per kilowat hour of electricity while customers in Bulgaria and Lithuania pay about half that rate.

Prices are also far higher here than in non-EU countries such as Iceland and Norway. But Eurostat points out upto-date figures are not yet available for Italy, Spain, Cyprus and Germany.

The statistics show that the average gas bill in Ireland is €1,059 and average electricity bill is €887. By comparison, Belgium pays €618 a year for gas – €441 less than an Irish bill. The Dutch pay €869 a year for gas – €190 less than in Ireland – and €641 for electricity, €246 less than in Ireland.

Daragh Cassidy, of price comparison website Bonkers. ie, said the figures will be ‘hard for Irish households to stomach, particularly as we’ve just seen a raft of price increases from the energy suppliers.

‘Ireland is an expensive country for consumers anyway and Ireland’s energy prices are as out-of-line with the EU as our other prices. Things like wages and business overheads also get factored into the price of supplying energy and these costs are also far higher in Ireland than in many other European countries.

‘We’re very much at the mercy of price movements on international markets and they’re going up 20, 30, 40% and that’s being passed on,’ said Mr Cassidy.

And he pointed out that despite around 40% of electricity coming from renewables ‘it is still underdeveloped’.

Mr Cassidy advised all customers to look at switching energy supplier every year.

‘Customers could save over €300 a year by switching from a standard tariff to the cheapest deals on the market, so I’d strongly encourage people to do so,’ he said.

Dermott Jewell, of the Consumers’ Association of Ireland, said: ‘We’ve held this position of being one of the most expensive in the EU for a while and it’s very, very frustrating that little is being done about it.

‘We need to become more astute in demanding better competition across the market. We see it when prices increase, they increase almost in unison and the same levels of increase which means there’s no element of interest in competition.

‘The Government can’t interfere or set pricing but there needs influence put on the providers that Ireland

‘This cannot be sustained’ ‘We have two gas fields’

needs an affordable energy market because, otherwise, there are not going to be the progressions made that are being dictated by environmental demands, and we’re losing out.

‘We have two gas fields and produce a lot of electricity from wind so there needs to be some determined action... by the Commission for the Regulation of Utilities.

‘This cannot be sustained because we are heading to fuel poverty for a cohort of our population,’ he said.