'If you didn't laugh, you cry': Woman one of 320,000 people struggling to pay electricity bills

A woman has admitted that "if you didn't laugh, you cry" when her electricity meter beeps to be topped up again. 

Liz is one of 320,000 people across Ireland who are struggling to pay their electricity bills, with a further 180,000 people in arrears. 

Liz falls into both categories, as she struggles with putting over half of her wages every week onto her prepaid electricity meter. 

She has also accrued some debt from when she was paying for both electricity and gas. 

Liz opened up to RTÉ about her struggles with paying her bills, saying she had to cancel the gas as it was "too expensive." 

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"Sometimes you're sitting here and the alarm goes off and you think 'here we go again'... It's like a vicious circle. If you didn't laugh, you cry," she said. 

In the space of just four days, Liz had already put €60 on the meter, but at the time of speaking, it was due another top up.

"Sometimes you won't be able to afford to shop at the end of the week, you just pick up few bits in the local shop, to keep you going. When you wake up in the morning and you're getting dressed, you get that damp feeling from your clothes because they’re so cold. It’s really difficult," she explained.

In the most recent Budget, the €250 energy credit was discontinued, leading to a record-breaking number of people contacting St Vincent de Paul for help on their energy bills. 

On top of that, in the two months following the Budget, a further 16,000 people went into arrears on their gas and electricity bills. 

"We are seeing an increase in the demand for food assistance, where people have decided to make that choice, to heat the home, but then are left with not enough food in the cupboards," Louise Bayliss, Head of Social Justice and Policy at the St Vincent de Paul, said.