Tánaiste and Minister for Finance Simon Harris has said help is on the way for the 320,000 people in arrears on their electricity bills.
Speaking this afternoon in Cork, Mr Harris denied that the failure by the Government to allocate across-the-board energy credits in the last Budget was a mistake.
He said the Government had instead acted in a targeted way, directing assistance where it was most needed.
"We are taking measures to support people who are at risk of fuel poverty," Mr Harris insisted.
"There are about 50,000 more households who will benefit next month from a decision that we took to expand the fuel allowance. Not only will 50,000 more households who receive the working family payment qualify for the fuel allowance in March, most importantly that will be back-dated until January to those 50,000 households.
"I want to say that assistance is on the way."
Mr Harris said he acknowledged that energy bills in Ireland "are high". Nevertheless, he said, 460,000 people in Ireland will now be in receipt of the fuel allowance.
He said the fuel allowance itself had also been increased.
"These are targeted measures were are taking to help those most in need with their energy bills," Mr Harris said.
Mr Harris denied that the Government was wrong not to allocate across-the-board energy credits in the Budget.
"We took the decision to introduce targeted measures so, rather than providing the energy credits to every household - including households that may not have," he said.
The number of people unable to pay their electricity bills rose to almost 320,000 in December last year, an increase of just over 20% on the previous year.
According to figures published by the Commission for the Regulation of Utilities (CRU) yesterday, over 50,000 more customers were in energy arrears at the end of last year than in December 2024.
The rise comes at a time of increased gas and electricity costs since the Russian invasion of Ukraine four years ago.
Year on year, the number of people unable to pay the whole of their energy bills rose from 264,458 in December 2024, to 319,459 last December.
The last two months of the year saw a significant jump, from over 303,000 customers in November, to almost 320,000 in December, a rise of over 5% month on month.
A total of 26% of all domestic gas customers were in arrears in December last year, with 14% of electricity customers unable to pay part or all of their bill.
In addition to an increase in the number of customers in arrears, the average amount electricity customers owed increased by 10% year on year, although the amount owed by gas customers fell by 1%.
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Read the CRU report in full here
Minister for Housing James Browne said he and the Government are "very much aware" of the challenges that people are going through.
Speaking on RTÉ's Morning Ireland, he said emergency measures were put in place when energy bills first rose but the Government is now moving towards a "more medium and long-term approach" to reduce costs permanently.
The Minister said the Government's energy affordability action taskforce has published an interim report and is working towards publishing a finalised report "to get costs under control".
"People can afford to live in a safe and secure manner and take away that stress," he added.
Govt 'warned' that this would happen
Sinn Féin's Finance Spokesperson Pearse Doherty said they "warned Government" that this would happen as a result of withdrawing energy credits and not holding companies to account.
Speaking on RTÉ's Morning Ireland, he said there is a family behind every one of the almost 320,000 households that is in arrears on their energy bills.
He said it is a "complete stain" on the Government's record and he called for a cost-of-living package to be introduced.
"You have to deal with the immediate crisis ... we need to introduce a cost-of-living package immediately, and part of that needs to be energy credits," he said.
"You have to bring forward the types of reforms that hold these companies to account in relation to the sky high prices and the profiteering that is happening.
"There's a number of solutions that for years now we in Sinn Féin and other parties in Opposition have been putting forward, in relation to market caps, breaking the link between the price of gas and electricity."
Mr Doherty said there is a responsibility on the State to support its citizens.
He said there is a cost-of-living crisis and he does not believe the Government understands that.
"They're making it worse. They're making it worse with their rent hike bill, by putting up petrol and diesel, they're going to put up home heating oil, they've put up toll bridges," he said.
"All of these things are feeding in and where we're seeing that now materialise is the fact that one in seven houses can't pay their electricity and one in four can't pay their gas bills."
