I welcome the opportunity to raise this matter on the Adjournment. While the reduction in electricity prices is welcome, I would like it to be passed on to the more than 100,000 ESB customers currently in arrears. The Minister for Enterprise, Jobs and Innovation, Deputy Richard Bruton, has also made a call in this regard and I hope the ESB will take account of what he had to say yesterday. I also hope heed will be paid to the calls made by other parties and the different groups involved in working with those in financial difficulties.
The Government must communicate to the energy regulator the wide range of opinions in respect of this matter. I hope the regulator will bring pressure to bear on the ESB to change its decision regarding customers in arrears. While there this no doubt that there are persons who are in arrears simply because they do not pay for reasons other than not being able to afford to do so, it is clear that the vast majority of the relevant individuals are in arrears for genuine reasons. As the Consumer Association of Ireland indicated yesterday, those to whom I refer have experienced probably the most difficult period of their lives in recent years. People have lost their jobs, have had their wages reduced and, as a consequence, have fallen into difficulties.
No one likes to fall behind with his or her mortgage repayments, rent or vital household bills. If people do fall behind, it is not only a question of their homes being placed in danger or their not being in a position to heat them properly, there is also the huge element of pride which comes into play. People are embarrassed if they cannot keep up their payments. As I stated last week, when commenting on the universal social charge, I have met individuals who are obliged to make major decisions on what appear to be small amounts of money on a daily and weekly basis. They must contemplate whether they should buy food, pay their rent or mortgage in full, pay their gas or electricity bill or whether they will be able to put some petrol into their cars on a Monday morning.
The worst aspect of all of this is that the people in the position I have outlined are often in employment. There is no doubt that many of those who are in arrears on their electricity bills are also working. That is a shameful situation for decent, hard-working people to find themselves in and it is not as a result of anything they have done. It is a shame that they are on such low wages and obliged to meet so many financial impositions that they find it impossible to make ends meet. It would surely be of assistance to them and would address the issue relating to arrears if the ESB was to extend the welcome reduction in prices to those of its customers who are in arrears. This is an issue in which the energy regulator ought to intervene in order to ensure the reduction in prices will be passed on.
I hope the regulator will refuse the expected request from Bord Gáis Éireann to significantly increase its charges for domestic gas supplies. Such a move would not only cancel out the limited relief provided by the reduction in charges for ESB electricity customers, it would also add to the financial stress imposed on the households to which I have referred.
Social welfare recipients who may be in arrears are entitled to a 6% discount on their energy costs. However, those who are genuinely in arrears and not in receipt of social welfare payments do not qualify for the reduction announced by the ESB. I hope the Minister of State will give this matter his immediate attention.
