14% of households in Ireland in 2024 said they were unable to afford adequate heat for their homes or pay energy bills in full.
This much lower than the 24% which was recorded during the financial crisis that started in 2008.
These results were recorded before the recent rise in energy costs due to the war in Iran.
The ESRI stated that households experience energy poverty when they find themselves unable to afford heating for their homes, lighting, cooking or powering appliances. They said that this poverty "is driven by a combination of low disposable income, high energy costs and poor housing and is strongly related to income inequality, unemployment and deprivation."
People that are affected would need on average €480 of additional income annually to exit fuel poverty which would cost the State €370m per year.
ESRI Postdoctoral Research Fellow Dr Andrés Estévez said that Ireland wants to protect those who are most vulnerable. "That is the first thing. Just look at the people who are in energy poverty and try to provide them with full, adequate support. There are many things you need to look at - short-term measures, responding to unforeseen situations. And for that, electricity credits are good," he said in an interview with RTE.
"Whether that are universal or are conditional, that is a matter of efficiency of what the Government can do as a response. And then for the longer term, we need to be thinking about financing options that are more accessible and tailored to those most in need and investments in the energy systems of Ireland that take us away from fossil fuels and makes Ireland more resilient to this macroeconomic volatility," he continued.
According to Dr Estévez, Ireland is actually doing well compared to other European countries. "If you compare it with other European countries, Ireland fares relatively well by when you look at a single measure ... if people can afford adequate warmth, then we are very close to the European average of 9.2%," he said.
