Electric Ireland has plans to increase residential electricity prices by 23.4 per cent and gas prices by 24.8 per cent with effect from 01 May 2022.

The increase will equate to €24.80 per month on the average residential electricity bill and €18.35 per month on the average residential gas bill, based on the estimated annual bill as defined by the Commission for Regulation of Utilities (CRU).

Marguerite Sayers, Executive Director, Electric Ireland said: "We are acutely aware that the rising cost of living is causing difficulty for households across the country. Unfortunately, the unprecedented and sustained volatility of wholesale gas prices over the last 12 months means that we now need to increase our prices. We delayed the increase as long as we could in the hope that wholesale prices would drop back to early 2021 levels, but regrettably this has not happened."

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She continued: "Electric Ireland had the lowest cumulative price rises in the past 12 months. We continue to deliver the best value we can and will maintain one of the lowest standard rates in the market, even after this increase. We know that this is unwelcome news, but international gas prices are beyond our control and have a huge impact on our costs.

"We appreciate this is a challenging time and are committed to helping any of our customers who experience financial difficulty. As always, we encourage any Electric Ireland customer who has difficulty in paying their energy bill to engage with us and we will work with them to put in place a manageable payment plan."