WTH?
This is total madness, FIFTH price hike from Electric Ireland since the beginning of 2021. EI’s parent group - ESB - recorded €680m profit in 2021.
I genuinely do not know how any of us apart from the super-rich will survive this winter.
What is the government doing apart from sitting on their hands?
It won't stop. They have a taste for meat now.
Then we would be paying more. Look at the M50 toll as an example.
Also consider that the government seems to have no intention of pausing or cancelling carbon taxes, which increase regularly, and the mongs in the tax advisory and social welfare quango have just advised that the excise on home heating kerosene be substantially increased. This excise is in addition to the carbon tax already on kerosene and it's added before you then pay VAT, so it's tax times tax.
Are the Irish government trying to provoke societal violence, because they are going about it the right way.
If only the Irish government owned 95% of ESB Group who own Electric Ireland, if only.
The standing charge increases are a kicker. Add that to all the unit cost hikes and then VAT applied to an already much higher amount.
Be cheaper to go to the Canaries for the whole Winter, and live with the standing charge. Must check the piggy bank again.
I assume that these protests will take place outside the Russian Embassy - and will be led, as always, by Comrade Smirker Murphy?
Outrageous comment! What right have you to interrupt the stream of self-righteous indignation with your calm, fact-based logic? Kindly desist!
There is no magic solution. We are in for years of hardship. Many people including myself won't be able to pay and when people begin to get cut off which they will things will turn ugly. The water charge protests will seem like a tea party this time next year.
Net Profit at ESB was actually 191 million last year. No idea why you'd use Operating Profit, when that's before tax, loan repayments etc. It also includes the businesses that ESB runs in Northern Ireland etc.
That's about a 5-6% return on investment, nothing particularly special about that. You'd need at least those sort of levels to be making and significant investments in power generation facilities, green energy etc. Any excess profits go back to the State as a dividend anyway, since they own it.
anywhere that will give me a discount for joining
Normally a 50 euro penalty i believe, but where rare you going to go?
All of them will increase prices.
can you leave them with the price change even if you in a contract with them
Too true, the solution is to encourage domestic generation for at least some degree of self sufficiency. The commercial market supply approach has failed to benefit consumers, no competition between the companies, so the only hope is to fight back at a household level. Grants to insulate your house will still keep you as a captive customer, grants to generate at least some of your own requirement would be more directly beneficial in changing the dysfunctional market that our ineffective regulator has presided over.
They've been putting up their standing charges as well as the unit rate, will they do that again. Also, they only abolished the low usage standing charge in May 2022 after around 10 years of charging people extra for not using enough electricity.
Meanwhile, our useless authorities and governments have been farting around and delaying for years when it comes to measures to encourage home generation i.e. removing the 12 square metre limit for planning exempt solar panels and introducing feed in tariffs. A 15 kwp solar system (~80 square metres) on somebody's roof In Ireland could provide 12+ megawatts of electricity per year and even though very little of that would be in December and January, a household could still end up buying few or no units from their supplier in those 2 months.
They do seem to be retaining reductions and allowances for pensioners etc as I read it?
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