ENERGY PRICE HIKES for customers of Electric Ireland, SSE Airtricity and Bord Gáis will take effect this weekend.

Electric Ireland and SSE Airtricity have imposed the price hikes from today, while Bord Gáis is increasing costs from tomorrow.

Customers can expect hikes of between 27-35% on residential electricity bills and increases of close to 40% for residential gas bills.

Each company pointed to the current energy crisis, exacerbated by the war in Ukraine, as factors behind the price hikes.

EU energy ministers yesterday signed off on a package of measures to tackle rising costs, including a windfall levy on profits by fossil fuel companies.

These measures, however, will not have an immediate effect on the gas prices that have been running wild as Russia reduced its supplies, with Energy Minister Eamon Ryan saying “it will take some time”.

Meanwhile, Ryan again rejected calls for an energy price cap and claimed yesterday that the windfall levy on energy companies is akin to a cap.

“You can used the word ‘cap’ in a different way”, he told RTE’s Morning Ireland programme, before adding: “The windfall profits (of energy companies), that’s what we need to cap.”

He continued: “We will be introducing a cap on the electricity and the gas markets in terms of capping the profits that accrue out to the to the energy companies and start to bring that back to the people.”

Sinn Féin recently pointed out that several other European countries have introduced energy price caps.

But speaking to RTÉ yesterday, Ryan said there were “significant interventions” in the budget and added that “each country is different in its different circumstances”.

On Tuesday, the Government announced €600 worth of energy credits for households as part of its €11 billion Budget measures.

The €200 credits will be paid in three instalments over the coming months.

Speaking earlier this month, after Electric Ireland confirmed its increase which has now taken effect, Taoiseach Micheál Martin described energy prices as “off the Richter scale” compared to last year.