Independent TD for Laois-Offaly Carol Nolan has said that exorbitant and unsustainable electricity and energy prices continue to financially cripple households and businesses.
This, she says, is despite a quantifiable drop in the costs of natural gas prices which largely determine Ireland’s electricity supply.
Deputy Nolan was speaking as evidence continues to mount that Ireland and Irish consumers are paying some of the highest electricity costs across all EU member states.
Deputy Nolan said: “People are sick of it. That is the plain unvarnished reality.
“They are sick and tired of opening their household, farm or business bills and being terrified at what is being demanded of them. It is like a form of psychological torture at this point.
“For the better part of a year families and businesses have been brought to the edge by these costs and just when they find the money to pay one massive bill, another one lands on the floor. It is an exhausting experience, and it simply must end.
“We know that natural gas prices have fallen or stabilised and that this is what determines the cost of our electricity.
“We hear plenty about how such reductions are going to be passed on at the commercial level, but the reality is that it is just not happening and where it is happening the reductions are so incremental that they do nothing to reduce the cost burden in real terms.
“All of this must be seen in the context of the expected rise in carbon tax next week and the rise in excise duty on petrol and diesel on 1st of June which will rise again in September and October.
“Despite Government smiles about increased billions from corporation tax, many families and businesses in my constituency remain trapped in a deep and prolonged cost-of-living crisis.
“There has been a tendency by Government to side-step that uncomfortable reality of lately. Unfortunately, it is a reality most households do not have the luxury of escaping.
“They are being left to the mercy of large energy companies who know that we have a Government that will continue to do nothing but adopt the kind of softy-softly pleading approach that it has implemented to date,” concluded Deputy Nolan.
