This morning I received a copy of an electricity bill from a constituent, a pensioner living on her own. Her bill has gone from €123 to €3,385 because her bills have been estimated for the past 24 months.

That smarts.

To add to her shock, she is being charged all of these arrears at the current electricity rate, compounding the financial hardship she is now facing. In the meantime, the electricity supplier gains excessive profits due to this inflated unit rate. The only obligation placed on suppliers is that they must attempt to take a meter reading four times a year.

After that, the onus to submit a reading is thrust back on the customer after a banal card is thrown into the letter box. In the UK, under the back billing rules, an electricity supplier cannot send a bill for energy used more than 12 months previously. What plans are there to do the same here?

It is a real concern throughout the country, but that is a shocking case. It is beyond belief that someone could have such an increase in a bill. The energy security framework plan the Government published two weeks ago contains a series of immediate emergency actions we are asking the Commission for Regulation of Utilities, CRU, and supply companies to do to manage this very difficult situation, so that customers who get into difficulty for whatever reason do not see an impossible situation which they cannot cope with or manage. It obliges supply companies to engage, make sure they are not disconnecting people and that they actually manage and help people through the bills process. That customer needs to contact his or her supplier, as well as the Money Advice & Budgeting Service, MABS, or other support agencies to make sure that the situation is resolved and he or she is not left exposed. The Government has given clear direction. CRU, the independent regulator, recognises the problem and is giving clear direction to supply companies about how to manage such inappropriate situations.

The Minister should read the meters.