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10th Dec 2021

Households to get €100 off first electricity bill in new year

Laura Grainger

Household income will not be an eligibility factor.

Every private household in Ireland is set to get €100 off their first electricity bill of the new year under new plans to be announced by the Government next week.

As reported by the Irish Examiner, around two million homes will receive the credit in a bid to address rising energy costs.

Households will receive the credit regardless of income.

No commercial premises will be eligible.

Sources within Government told the Irish Examiner that the move will require legislation and is likely to be passed by Cabinet on Tuesday.

The publication reports there were concerns that all households receiving the credit regardless of income would be “politically tricky” but a means test would be “too onerous, complicated and slow”.

The move is to cost an estimated €200 million and will be funded through existing resources within the Department of Energy budget.

The move comes after figures released by the Central Statistics Office (CSO) on Thursday showed that the rate of inflation rose by 5.3% in November, meaning inflation is now at a 20-year-high.

Energy costs have reportedly faced 35 increases since the start of the year.