Around 1.2 million Irish households will face a price hike "tomorrow"

IRELAND: Families hammered by the cost of living crisis are being urged to join a national protest to tell Government: “Enough is enough.”

It comes as 1.2million Electric Ireland customers will be hit with combined further increases of €477 for gas and electricity from tomorrow.

Hard-pressed households have faced 58 energy price hikes in 18 months – with thousands forking out an additional €1,439 a year on power and heating bills.

Last night, TD Richard Boyd Barrett criticised the "shameless profiteering" of energy companies who raised their prices despite reporting astronomical profits.

Bord Gais Energy reported profits of €39.5 million in the first half of 2022, up 74% over the same period in 2021, despite boosting rates in April, August, and October of that year.

The parent company of Electric Ireland reported profits of €679 million in 2021, an increase of 10% from 2020.

"These corporations are making amazing levels of profit while at the same time inflicting completely untenable increases on their clients," stated Mr. Boyd Barrett. For a huge number of elderly, labourers, and those on low incomes who cannot absorb the level of rises we are now facing, this winter is going to be truly grim.

He urged the government to implement windfall taxes and price controls on energy businesses.

Billy Kelleher, a Fianna Fail MEP for Ireland South, is another supporter of a windfall tax.

He said: “We can’t have a situation where publicly owned companies [and] privately-owned companies are profiteering excessively on the backs of ordinary people during this extraordinary crisis.”