'People are just surviving' - Leitrim comment on half a million in energy arrears
Speaking to the Leitrim Observer, Cllr Justin Warnock said he thought it was “dreadful; half a million across Ireland. They would be people on social welfare, pensioners but also young people that are working and are being crushed.”
Over half a million Irish households are in energy arrears for the first time, the Dáil has heard.
Around 319,000 households have fallen behind in paying their electricity bill, while a further 183,000 families have fallen behind in paying their gas bill, according to figures published by the Commission for the Regulation of Utilities (CRU).
Combined, the figures indicate 502,203 households were in energy arrears as of March this year.
Speaking to the Leitrim Observer, Cllr Justin Warnock said he thought it was “dreadful; half a million across Ireland. They would be people on social welfare, pensioners but also young people that are working and are being crushed.”
Cllr Warnock talked about his own experience of struggling to make ends meet after the economic downturn. “I’ve been through this myself before in 2008 to 2010 when the thing went belly up. I had a business and two men working for me full-time and part-time and I had to let them both go just to keep my head about water because the banks were after me, I had a mortgage, I had a personal loan and then you have all these bills coming in. You have to try and meet the mortgage and the loans and put the bill further back and it keeps accumulating so I’m well aware of what people are going through.”
He said he would have liked to seen a better break down of the figures. “Like for example to see if it people in rental accommodation or people with massive mortgages and now there are interest rate increases as well. The government needs to wake up. I am getting it every day now from people saying that Fianna Fáil have lost touch with the people and we can see that in the recent by-elections when you see the votes that The Monk got and what we got.”
He added: “I never speak out against by own party but Micheál Martin is Taoiseach and there needs to be some kind of emergency fund put in. There are always those who will jump on the bandwagon and hope someone else will pay the bill but there are definitely an awful lot of people struggling and it’s not good enough. “
He said that people are switching energy providers in an attempt to save money. “Everyone is changing from one electrical provider to another because they are getting up to €50 cut in their bills. When you see people who are working doing that, you know they are financially strained. And then they find after a year or two the price is back up to where it was. People are just surviving.”
He concluded: “They are talking about bringing in help for people on social welfare but what about the people who are renting and paying €1,400. There has to be some designated agency to go in with your bill and show where you are and maybe get some help. There has to be some help put in place there.”