Pearse Doherty (Donegal, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

Since 2021, telecom providers have been hitting households with unfair and punitive inflation-linked price increases in the middle of their contracts. Providers such as Eir and Vodafone are hitting customers with co-ordinated price hikes at the rate of inflation, plus a further percentage increase on top of that. This is going to see Eir and Vodafone hiking their prices by 8% in April.

When people sign up to a phone, broadband or TV contract, they should be certain of what they are going to pay. This practice not only hits households with punishing price hikes but means they have no certainty about the money they will pay for these services. This practice should be banned. Telecom and broadband operators should not be allowed to punish households with harmful price hikes linked to inflation. I have written, on behalf of Sinn Féin, to the regulator calling for it to ban this harmful and unfair practice. Will the Tánaiste back Sinn Féin's call to ban in-contract inflation-linked price hikes, which are hitting customers, will hit them again in April and have been hitting them substantially over recent years?

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