Bord Gáis Energy is the latest utility company to announce a disconnection moratorium for the duration of the current Covid-19 level 5 restrictions.

It follows a similar move made by Electric Ireland earlier this week.

Also Read: Electric Ireland disconnection moratorium brings 'peace of mind' as winter approaches.

Bord Gáis said: “We will not be disconnecting business or residential customers for non-payment at this time.

This follows the price pledge commitment we made to our customers in September of this year, when we were the first energy provider to freeze residential gas and electricity prices ahead of the winter period, until at least March 2021.

“In October 2019, we were the only energy provider to reduce prices before the winter 2019 period and we also reduced prices in May of this year – combined, these two price reductions saved dual fuel customers an average of €97.53 per annum.

Financial difficulty

Bord Gáis is continuing to encourage any customer who is concerned about paying for their energy to get in touch straight away.

The company says it will be as flexible as possible in finding a solution for each customer.

“We can help set up sustainable payment plans that will ease the worry at this time and avoid undue debt build-up on their accounts.

“Our focus is always on the safety of our customers and colleagues and we adhere to all of the government and HSE safety guidelines at all times.

We have ceased proactive door-to-door residential and commercial sales and we are advising those customers with meters that to ensure their bills are as accurate as possible, they should submit meter readings either online or via our call centre.

“We have started to contact all customers with prepayment meters via text advising how to top up either themselves or by a designated member of their social bubble visiting an outlet or topping up by phone or online,” added the company.

Bord Gáis said that ensuring a steady supply of gas, electricity and services to homes and businesses is “critically important” especially in the winter months.

“Coming into the colder winter period, we are committed to leaving no one in the cold, we are reassuring customers that we will continue to carry out service and repair work and advising them that if they have concerns about their boiler to get in touch with us.

“We have screening questions for customers to answer before our engineer will go into any home and have a robust set of procedures in place to keep both our customers and our engineers safe, to prevent against community transmission of Covid-19,” according to the company.