A man who chained himself to railings at ESB headquarters in Dublin two weeks ago was in Athlone yesterday to collect signatures for his petition to ask the ESB to be more lenient towards customers who are trying to pay their bills.
Seamus Sherlock, from Newcastle West in Limerick, was joined in front of Athlone Towncentre yesterday by Mairead Mullen from Roscommon, who has been lending her support to the campaign.
Mr Sherlock, who is unemployed, received a bill for €2,261 in June of this year when he took over the family home, a sum which had mounted up due to years of estimated bills.
After borrowing €1,100 from family and friends to pay half the bill, he offered to pay the remainder in weekly instalments of €50 out of his €196 social welfare payments.
However, the ESB refused his offer, instead seeking €150 per week for eight weeks. A further €97 was added to the bill to cover a call-out or “disconnection visit”, when Mr Sherlock was told he had three weeks to consider the payment scheme.
With the three-week period due to finish on Wednesday, Mr Sherlock has taken to the streets of towns across the country to raise awareness of his plight. He has brought his campaign to Killarney, Tralee, Cork, and Limerick, and is in Nenagh today [Friday]. He is also rounding up support by means of a Facebook page.
He plans to return to Dublin next week with his petition, which has so far collected over 4,500 signatures.
“We want the ESB to stop disconnecting people who are making an effort to pay their bill, and to put an end to the call-out fee,” he said yesterday.
“The ESB are disconnecting 30 people every day and leaving them with no power, that’s 900 a month. It costs €97 for a call-out, and almost €200 for reconnection.”
