Sinn Féin MEP for Dublin, Lynn Boylan, has said the "government policy is failing miserably" after figures released by the Commission for the Regulation of Utilities (CRU) show there have never been more electricity and gas customers in debt.

According to the quarterly figure up to the end of June, which includes households and commercial customers, over half a million energy customers are in arrears.

These include 320,332 electricity customers and 180,163 gas customers who are in debt.

"More customers are in debt now than at any point since the energy prices spiked in the wake of Covid-19 and the Russian invasion of Ukraine," said Mrs Boylan.

"These numbers tell us what households and small businesses up and down the state already know, the government policy is failing miserably."

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At the end of June, households owed a staggering €119,953,630 to energy companies, a 12% increase from the €105,857,250 owed just three months earlier.

"Several years into the crisis, it's clear the government still does not have a handle on it as more households are in debt now than last year before the recent round of energy credits," said Mrs Boylan.

"Meanwhile, more commercial customers are in debt to gas and electricity suppliers than ever before."

The Sinn Féin MEP also expressed worry of a growing divide between shareholders and ordinary people, while outlining her party's plan of action.

"Like the housing crisis, this government is behaving as though widespread energy poverty is a normal feature of the energy system, when it is not," she said.

"This is a political choice. There is an alternative. We need wholesale market reform but there are steps to take in the short term.

"First – end corporate subsidies paid for by households and small businesses. Ordinary people are paying for renewables and grid upgrades that data centres should be paying for.

"Secondly, Eamon Ryan directed that over €600m be taken from households and small businesses to subsidise the bills of data centres during the so-called Large Energy User Rebalancing Subvention."

She added: "Sinn Féin is calling in that debt – that money should be paid back by data centres and large energy users to give households a break. We need a Household Rebalancing Subvention now."