St Vincent de Paul (SVP) has said that the Energy Poverty Action Plan approved by Cabinet last week must be delivered quickly to protect people this winter.
The charity has said some of the short-term measures are positive, but it has expressed concern about the lack of medium and long-term strategic actions to tackle energy poverty effectively.
SVP have welcomed the introduction of the new government fund to support people in energy poverty and the move to extend the definition of 'vulnerable customer' to financially vulnerable households.
However, it has said that a number of important measures are required to end energy poverty are not addressed.
Among the requirements outlined include an energy poverty target to drive implementation; energy efficiency measures targeted at those in energy poverty living in the private rented sector and a scheme of Community Energy Advisors or a specialist Energy Consumer Agency to advocate for energy customers.
SVP Research and Policy Officer Issy Petrie has said the charity is seeing people "really struggling with cost of keeping the heating, hot water and lights on, and people are having to make difficult choices on where to cut back".
Ms Petrie highlighted recent CSO data which showed that almost 380,000 people are unable to keep their homes adequately warm - which is more than double since 2021.
"Government can act now by providing extra top ups for prepay customers, waiving emergency credit repayments for gas prepay meters, supporting households with arrears, and providing rapid assistance through Additional Needs Payments," she said.
Tricia Keilthy, Head of Social Justice and Policy with SVP, has said that even before the current energy crisis, one-in-six households lived in energy poverty.
"Fundamentally the plan needs an ambitious energy poverty target that will make sure the whole of Government is working together to make sure people can access essential energy, this winter and longer term," she said.
Ms Keilthy added that energy efficiency supports must extended to people in energy poverty in all housing tenure types, including those in the private rented sector.
