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If families around the country didn't already have enough money worries Bord Gáis are going to make sure they have even more with a 10 per cent hike in prices.

According to the Irish Independent, the semi-state agency's decision to ask for the whopper increase should inflate the many family gas bills by about €150 a year. This will see combined gas and electricity prices soar through the previously unbroken €2,000 roof.

So that's a water charge, property tax and ever increasing energy bills for people to deal with? Only for people with gas, it appears.

Oil prices continue to drop on the markets and home heating oil prices are doing the same.

Bord Gáis will have to get permission for the increase from the Commission for Energy Regulation... but who's really thinking they'll say no? If they green light the move, prices will increase in the Autumn.

What's most galling about the increase is that wholesale gas prices have dropped in the past month, making Bord Gáis more money (cold comfort for the families that will struggle to pay).

A new survey also found that energy prices in Ireland were 4 per cent higher than the EU average.

Bord Gáis insists that the increase is warranted, saying it had bought the next year and a half worth of gas in advance so the price drop hasn't helped them.