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A NUMBER OF utility price rises are set to kick in this month, with consumers set to face additional costs for gas and electricity.
Electric Ireland previously announced that its charges are set to rise by over 20%, with that increase beginning from 1 May.
Residential Electric Ireland electricity prices are set to rise by 23.4%, which will equate to an additional €297.58 per year onto the average cost of electricity.
Gas prices from the provider are also set to rise by 24.8%, equating to an additional €220.25 per year to the average cost of gas.
Similar price increases from SSE Airtricity also kick in from roday, with electricity bills rising by 24% and gas prices increasing by 32.3%.
The electricity increase equates to a jump of €338 per year with the gas rise up by an average of €332 a year.
The increases come as Eurostat records an overall increase of consumer prices in Ireland by 6.9% on the year, with utility costs the single biggest factor in that rise.
The contentious increase in Carbon Tax also begins from today as part of the legislated gradual increase of the charge.
The Programme for Government provides for a ten-year trajectory for Carbon Tax increases to reach €100 per tonne or carbon dioxide by 2030. Carbon tax is a charge applied to highly carbon-emitting fuels such as coal, peat, oil and natural gas.
From today, it is set to increase next month from €33.50 to €41.00 per tonne.
It is estimated that it will add about €20 to the cost of filling a tank of home heating oil and €1.50 a month on gas bills.
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I’m going to have to offset these carbon taxes by not paying the RTE tax.
@OConnelj: Send them an actual meter reading today so you dont get overcharged on any usage prior to today. It wont save a huge amount but they’re not getting a anything extra from estimates/inaccurate change over figures.
@OConnelj: Ah but they gave the OAP’s an extra €5 a week to keep warm.
So this is a day of celebration for the greens! The 600 coal mines in China will be off set by this. Just waiting for the headlines “ Ireland to save the world”. Of course !!!! all the extra taxes will not be swallowed up in the black hole of day to day government spending.
@Dave Phelan: This money will be used to fund 8 new quangos and 3 new investigations into not blaming anyone but learning lessons. We are getting such great value for our taxes that I, for one, hope they raise them to 90%. Imagine what they could acheive.
@Dave Phelan: 13.5% of Ireland’s energy comes from renewables. It’s 43.5% in China. We’re in no position to slag off China in that regard.
@Thomas O’ Donnell: Does your partner in life ever get jealous? You know, spending all your time on here constantly defending the Government.
@Jack Cass: Facts are often disruptive to other people’s opinions. Didn’t notice any support for the Government in his comment.
Well Done Irish Government
I’m sure all the TD’s & Ministers etc can afford to pay there bills with our Taxes.
Seriously when is it going to stop cost of living gets higher and higher yet wages stays the same….. viva le revolution
@Ryan Armstrong: everybody is jumping on it now…. Even got letter this week from eir saying they were increasing broadband by nearly 15%…those are huge hikes.. Twice what inflation is
@O’Goire: Thanks Ryan for telling me about another draw on my hard earned.
@Pat Barry: Correction, ‘o Goire, credit where credit is due!
@O’Goire: Got the same.
@Ryan Armstrong: When oil and gas prices come down (or stop rising at least). High oil prices make more oil fields viable, which eventually will increase supply and drive down prices. Shouldn’t take too long. Longer term, renewables will stop energy costs rising.
As an Irish citizen, paying the greens taxes, I ask them to provide proof that the taxes have reduced climate change. China is increasing coal output, the US military produces more carbon than all of Swedens economy, etc. If our taxes are reducing these affects I’ll gladly pay, otherwise I want a refund of my money. Local country greens are not affective without a global green party to lobby the big hitters not the Irish.
@Michael Dowling: You’re paying Irish taxes, though Greens are part of the government that applied them. You’re right that taxes paid in Ireland reduce global climate change, but we can’t hope to persuade China/USA to do anything, if we’re not.
Great give us €200 one month and take it over the next few months
@clairebear: What an odd comment. Your energy provider did not give you a 200 euro credit – that was the tax payer. The tax payer is not taking it off you over the next few months, that’s your energy provider. They are not the same thing.
Meanwhile china builds 46 coal powered plants every single year and nothing said
@doyle: What do you feel Ireland should say to them?
A vote for the greens is a vote for new and higher tax. Simple as that. Yet people keep voting green in the belief that it will make a difference to the climate. It won’t.
Airtricity should never be forgiven for their false advertising… I will never use them again
@O’Goire:
This. They need to be investigated and fined heavily.
@O’Goire: apparently they were challenged on their advertising and they were exonerated. Can’t find the link right now but I’m certain I read it somewhere. In any case I’ll be leaving them at the end of my contract.
Let’s shaft the poor of this country so that a nation of 5m can singlehandedly sort out climate change.
It’s their fault, after all…
Tack on inflation and rising fuel costs and you’ll see people burning rubbish.
@Ian O’Donovan: Do it already. Plastic milk bottles, paper, carboard, in fack anything that will burn in my stove. I feel guilty but rising costs outway my income.
@Dave Barrett: checking skips for pallets is becoming a pastime now.
@Dave Barrett: please don’t do this. My neighbour burns rubbish in her stove and the fumes get into everything.
@Dave Barrett: How about you continue burning the paper and cardboard if you have to, but leave out the plastics causing the toxic pollution? Burning plastic, e.g., PVC produces dioxins which can cause birth defects that can then be inherited.
Can they squeeze us anymore ! I’m on a C-Pap machine and nebuliser, I’m seriously going to have to consider cutting back on there use. This is no way to live in, so called progressive Ireland….
Dinner by candlelight how romantic
@Noel Donohue: they’ll probably put up the price of candles next. And matches and lighters too
@Helen Kiely-O’Regan: They already raised the price of candles. White cylindrical candles to be more specific!
A whole 1.50 extra a month for the carbon tax increase. That’s what all fuss was about. The price of a bar of choclate. Geez.
@Sean Minihane: That’s just for gas, another €4 pm for kerosene.
@Pat Barry: don’t forget the petrol and diesel
@Sean Minihane: “Electric Ireland has announced plans to increase residential electricity prices by 23.4 per cent and gas prices by 24.8 per cent with effect from 1 May 2022.” – Ah sure, aren’t those increases less than a quarter – what are you on about? And EUR 295,000 minimum for a family home in Ireland – ah, sure wouldn’t you win that amount on the lottery?
@Sean Minihane: tip of the iceberg its going up another 7/8 fold over the next few years too plus the same increase for diesel/petrol gas etc. Its a lot more than 1.50 per month and the reason people have a problem with it is it’s not going to have a blind bit of difference on climate change which is likely to hit Ireland least of all.countries in any case. This is one crises that we should definitely be laggards in not leaders. The longer we wait for the big polluters to get their houses in order the cheaper all the renewable tech will become.
How much more can they squeeze us. I have to use a C-Pap machine all through the night, I also have a nebulizer. I have to now curtail there use ….
@Julie Aisbitt: I’d keep using them as much as you need. A typical C-Pap uses 50W of power and using this for 12 hrs every night for a year costs €50. The nebuliser would be similar. After the 20% increase in the cost of electricity, that’ll be €20 extra – not worth endangering your health for €20 per year.
@Mickey Finn: She should not have to do either, as far,as carbon taxes are involved. Another effect of the carbon tax increase that the Greens never accounted for.
As if they weren’t high enough already! Already one of the most expensive in Europe !!
And yet the Government roll over every time!
@Niall Hickey-Horan: Well the Greens have the main parties held hostage. Martin and Varadker need to call Ryans bluff. If they tell him no, he either pulls out forcing and election, or knuckle under, after all, his party is the minor one, yet seems to be calling the shots. Either way, the current Green party problem is sorted. They will be gone. There is a place for a Green based party, but they need to show cop on in light of what is happening around the world.
TIME TO TURN OFF THE GAS,
It’s over rated anyway ……people lived long enough with out the likes of oil & gas
How much more can they squeeze us, i have to use a C-Pap machine every night all night, i also have a nebuliser machine, I’m now going to have to curtail there use ………
China is giving an ol’ good f… you to the rest of the world, especially Europe. China does not give a flying saucer what ya ministers think. It is regrettable that China does nothing to stop climate change. Why do we have to have pay more???
I’m so glad I went with wood pellets when we did this place ten years ago.
Solar panels are getting more attractive by the day!
@Steve O’Hara-Smith: Are you using the wood pellets with a conventional heating system? I.e., can you disconnect the oil boiler and just replace it with a wood pellet boiler?
@Mickey Finn: in theory yes but you’d need a competent person to carry out a review of your heating system first to advise properly what needs altering. Having said that your still relying on a supplier for pellets so as the “traditional” fuels go up in price you know what the wood pellet supplier will do….he’ll get greedy just like everyone else does. It’s all about “The Bottom Line” Nothing in Ireland that’s value for money anymore not that there has been for a long time anyway. Us Irish are Geeedee people!!!
@Mickey Finn: Pretty much yes, there are many options in pellet burners. We went for a pretty indoor unit with a boiler and pump built in and an unconventional thermal store system, but I was starting from scratch.
There are also ugly shed units, some designed for use with.a pellet store (minimum order usually 3 tonnes) others you pour pellets into a hopper like my indoor one. Some are designed as oil burner replacements.
I buy bagged pellets a few bags at a time in the village creamery which is handy. Failing a local supply the best value is bafs delivered by the pallet. You need to store them somewhere dry! Wet pellets are sawdust.
@Thomas Meaney: I’ve been heating with pellets for fifteen years now. The first price hike I noticed was recent on foot of the diesel price rise hitting delivery costs. Price 15 years ago 30c per kilo, now 45c with the last 5c being the recent noticable jump.
I’m away on holiday until 12th May. When I return I’m gonna read my smart meter readings and if the usage is the same, I will go balistic
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