{"id":18261,"date":"2026-06-11T13:27:55","date_gmt":"2026-06-11T12:27:55","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.socialdemocrats.ie\/?p=18261"},"modified":"2026-06-11T13:27:55","modified_gmt":"2026-06-11T12:27:55","slug":"government-has-its-head-in-the-sand-as-number-of-accounts-in-energy-arrears-passes-half-million","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.socialdemocrats.ie\/ga\/government-has-its-head-in-the-sand-as-number-of-accounts-in-energy-arrears-passes-half-million\/","title":{"rendered":"Government has its head in the sand as number of accounts in energy arrears passes half million"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>New figures showing more than half a million energy accounts in arrears must shock the Government out of its complacency, according to Social Democrats TD Jennifer Whitmore.<\/p>\n<p>Deputy Whitmore, who is the party\u2019s energy spokesperson, said:<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe Commission for Regulation of Utilities (CRU) has revealed there were 318,735 homes \u2013 one in seven \u2013 in electricity arrears at the end of March. A total of 183,468 were behind on their gas bills.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThis means there are now more than 500,000 energy bills in arrears \u2013 a grim milestone that must be a wake-up call for this Government. Even before the latest conflict in the Middle East, customers in Ireland were saddled with some of the highest energy costs in Europe.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cAnd despite Minister Darragh O\u2019Brien requesting the CRU to carry out a review into alleged price gouging by energy companies last year, there is still no sign of their report.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe Government\u2019s head in the sand approach to this crisis is not good enough. We need to see immediate interventions, including targeted energy supports for low to medium income households. The Social Democrats have repeatedly called for a \u20ac400 energy credit for households with incomes of less than \u20ac70,000.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIn addition, we have been pushing for the Government to adopt our \u2018Solar for All\u2019 plan. Our proposal includes a doubling of grants for solar installation to \u20ac3,600; the inclusion of solar panels in the \u2018Warmer Homes Scheme\u2019 to help families cut electricity costs by an average of \u20ac450 a year; and the rollout of new technology for plug-in solar.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe number of people struggling to pay their bills will inevitably rise further when energy providers hike their prices from July. If things are bad now, I dread to think of what will happen in the winter months when demand for energy use increases.\u201d<\/p>\n<p><em>June 11, 2026<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>New figures showing more than half a million energy accounts in arrears must shock the Government out of its complacency, according to Social Democrats TD Jennifer Whitmore. Deputy Whitmore, who is the party\u2019s energy spokesperson, said: \u201cThe Commission for Regulation of Utilities (CRU) has revealed there were 318,735 homes \u2013 one in seven \u2013 in [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":11228,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[650,539,268,7],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-18261","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-cost-of-living","category-energy","category-jennifer-whitmore","category-press-release"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v27.7 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>Government has its head in the sand as number of accounts in energy arrears passes half million - Social Democrats<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.socialdemocrats.ie\/government-has-its-head-in-the-sand-as-number-of-accounts-in-energy-arrears-passes-half-million\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"ga_IE\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Government has its head in the sand as number of accounts in energy arrears passes half million - Social Democrats\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"New figures showing more than half a million energy accounts in arrears must shock the Government out of its complacency, according to Social Democrats TD Jennifer Whitmore. 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