Electric Ireland has announced plans to increase electricity and gas prices across the country.

The residential prices will rise by 4% from 01 April 2019, following a winter price freeze for Electric Ireland customers.

The changes are being implemented in response to the sustained increases in wholesale energy prices.

Marguerite Sayers, Executive Director, Electric Ireland, commented: "Electric Ireland is absolutely committed to keeping energy prices as low as possible.  Last November, while some other suppliers increased prices, we  implemented a Winter Price Freeze to ensure we protected our customers from the impact of  rising costs for as long as we could. We helped our customers by not increasing our prices during the winter months when energy consumption is at its highest and people have the added financial pressure of Christmas. This resulted in a total saving of €21 million for Electric Ireland  customers.

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"However, against the backdrop of much higher wholesale energy costs, we now reluctantly have to pass on some of these higher costs to our customers from 01 April 2019. We strive to continually offer our customers the best value in the market. We remain the only Irish supplier to offer savings of up to 8.5per cent on an ongoing basis to reward our loyal residential electricity and gas customers, which is different and we feel benefits customers more in the long run than the one year discount model for new customers favoured by many of our competitors."

(CM/JG)