Estimated Electricity Bills are causing untold hardship to many a struggling householders over the last number of months. We know this from reports from the St. Vincent de Paul organisation which has been inundated with requests from young families who get an enormous bills for support. This situation is unsustainable they say.
Cllr Nuala Nolan says that this situation has got worse over the last 4 to 5 years with so many add-ons to bills. Soon will effect the viability of some Electricity Companies. There are many charges including Vat on your bill which include subscription towards renewable energy.
At this stage only a hermit living in the wilds can do without electricity so there is ready made market for Electricity customers. But they treat their customers as cash machines raising charges at will with the backing of whatever Government is in power. It is crazy that ESB at one time had to raise it’s charges to facilitate new companies coming into the market. No talk at all about the taxpayers money which was used to built up this network. No payback for them only bigger bills.
A lot of apartments in the City are heated by storage heaters which is one of the most expensive ways of heating a home, especially for a young family. This is part of the problem when it comes to families with large arrears in Electricity Bills.
While suppliers can put in meters for those in arrears, it is not addressing the main cause of these arrears which is estimated bills. No other service provider like phone companies would be allowed get away with this. While they are at it why not allow for monthly or fortnightly bills to make it easier on customers. With the Chief Executive of ESB getting a basic of €315,000 a year surly in a time of recession customers need a break!
They have a new App for customers to adjust their heating, why not make an App so that the customer could read their own meter, many people living in Apartments do not have access to their electricity meters.
The ESB have removed their Customer Service Office from Galway so one has only the option of getting through to them by email or phone … a disgrace when the people of this country have invested in this network since the foundation of the State. So it is costing you to access them with your queries.
It is time that they provided more people on the ground to read meters, in other words create jobs and also provide a Customer Service on the ground to deal with complaints. After all they make massive profits at the taxpayers expense.
Contact: Cllr Nuala Nolan, Tel 086 407 2622
