Frightened elderly people in Offaly will 'switch off electricity'

A SPECIAL meeting of Offaly County Council’s Community Response Forum needs to be held as soon as possible to tackle the cost of living crisis, a councillor said recently.

The Community Response Forum was formed during the Covid Pandemic, and is a multi-agency forum which brings together representatives of both Statutory and Voluntary agencies operating across the County, ensuring commitment and consistency in terms of service delivery. It was re-established as part of the county’s response to assist the people of Ukraine.

“A lot of people are very worried about the energy and cost of living crisis,” commented Cllr John Leahy during the September meeting of Birr Municipal District.

“It's particularly impacting on elderly people's mental wellbeing. Whenever I talk to them they tell me how worried they are about astronomical electricity costs during the winter. They are worried Electric Ireland will cut off their supply when they can't afford the bills and the temperatures are freezing outside.

“A lot of elderly people don't like owing bills,” continued Cllr Leahy. “They take pride in being on top of things and paying what they owe. There's a lot of scaremongering going on. The simple fact is customers who don’t pay their energy bills can’t be cut off by suppliers from December 1 to February 28, according to the Commission for Regulation of Utilities.

“However, there will be a lot of vulnerable people during the winter and I think they will need a humanitarian response from us, and that humanitarian response should be overseen by the Community Response Forum.”

He asked people to regularly visit their elderly relatives and friends during the coming months, “because such visits can avert a fatality.” He said he's worried that a lot of elderly will switch off their electricity despite being told they won't be cut off.

“People are going to suffer. We need to do what we can to avert that suffering.”

Cllrs Peter Ormond and John Carroll agreed with Cllr Leahy.