(Image: Pixabay)The Tanaiste has called on energy companies to "reflect" on the reduction of wholesale electricity prices.
Recent CSO figures show prices have dropped by 62 percent from December 2022 to May of this year.
However, most companies have yet to reduce their consumer prices, saying there's a time lag from when they purchased electricity.
Nearly 406-thousand households were behind in their energy bills in May.
New figures from the CRU shows a 10 percent increase from over 364-thousand in just three months.
It breaks down to 240,000 electricity customers, along with 165,000 households which were behind in the gas bills.
Sinn Fein's climate action spokesperson, Darren O'Rourke, believes the figures show the Government's energy credits didn't go far enough:
"We've had on the one hand the direct intervention from Government, the three €200 electricity credits and at exactly the same time, we have increasing numbers in electricity arrears in the region of 10 percent month on month, it's even higher, it's at 20 percent."
