![\"Up](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/2189146d-90f1-445c-9e87-c9fc6faf2ca6.jpg\")
<\/p>\nGiving existing customers same rates as new ones \u2018worth considering\u2019, firm\u2019s chief financial officer says\n<\/p>\n
Chief financial officer Paul Stapleton said that while Ireland had an \u201copen and competitive\u201d energy market, it was evident that some suppliers were offering very attractive headline electricity and gas rates to lure new customers, while existing customers were often paying much more.<\/p>\n
Electric Ireland also offers generous sign-up deals for new customers, which include discounted rates and cashback in some cases. <\/p>\n
Mr Stapleton\u2019s comments come as one million residential energy customers in Ireland face hikes in their bills in coming months.<\/p>\n
Energia, Flogas, Bord G\u00e1is Energy and Pinergy have all announced electricity price increases, while SSE Airtricity announced in February that it was raising prices for both electricity and gas.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Up to one\u00a0million customers are facing higher energy bills as a number of firms have hiked prices. Stock image. Photo: Alamy<\/p>\n
Today’s News in 90 Seconds – September 17th<\/p>\n
The companies blame higher network charges being imposed by the energy regulator to pay for investment in the electricity grid, as well as increased wholesale gas prices.<\/p>\n
Electric Ireland \u2013 the ESB\u2019s consumer arm \u2013 announced last week it would keep electricity prices unchanged and cut gas prices by 4pc.<\/p>\n
Electric Ireland\u2019s strategy is very much focused on longer-term value<\/p>\n
\u201cI think some suppliers maybe have a strategy to attract customers with very attractive-looking discounts on a short-term basis,\u201d Mr Stapleton said.<\/p>\n
\u201cElectric Ireland\u2019s strategy is very much focused on longer-term value and keeping the underlying standard tariff as low as it possibly can.<\/p>\n
\u201cOther suppliers may have different ways of looking at that. It\u2019s an open and competitive market and people have choice in that regard.\u201d<\/p>\n
Mr Stapleton pointed out that, in the UK, regulations had been introduced during the energy crisis that required electricity suppliers to offer the same price to existing customers that they offer to new customers.<\/p>\n
UK regulator Ofgem decided last year to retain that requirement.<\/p>\n
\u201cI think it\u2019s something to consider,\u201d Mr Stapleton said.<\/p>\n
\u201cObviously, we want a competitive market. We want customers to have choice. But I think it\u2019s worth considering the customers who can least afford to pay \u2013 are they getting the value?\u201d<\/p>\n
You\u2019d have to look at the impact on competition and choice<\/p>\n
He insisted that while savvy customers could still get good deals, there were many who were not as able to assess their best options.<\/p>\n
He said that replicating the UK requirement in Ireland would help to smooth out energy prices for consumers and \u201cmoderate the underlying tariffs\u201d.<\/p>\n
\u201cOn the other side, you\u2019d have to look at the impact on competition and choice,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n
\u201cAnd that is important to have a functioning market. It\u2019s up to the regulator and policymakers to consider all those aspects. But it is noticeable that you\u2019re seeing a lot of divergence now in the underlying tariffs, whereas in the UK, there\u2019s less divergence where existing customers get the same value as new customers.\u201d<\/p>\n
He refused to be drawn on specific reasons for the big price increases being introduced by some of Electric Ireland\u2019s rivals.<\/p>\n
\u201cI can\u2019t speak for other players in the market,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Giving existing customers same rates as new ones \u2018worth considering\u2019, firm\u2019s chief financial officer says Chief financial officer…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":26583,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[15457,12613,22251,22250,42,10099,43,40,38,41,39],"class_list":{"0":"post-26582","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-headlines","8":"tag-bord-gais-energy","9":"tag-electric-ireland","10":"tag-energia-group","11":"tag-esb-group","12":"tag-headlines","13":"tag-john-mulligan","14":"tag-news","15":"tag-top-news","16":"tag-top-stories","17":"tag-topnews","18":"tag-topstories"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/26582","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=26582"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/26582\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/26583"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=26582"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=26582"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=26582"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}