A business group has made an unprecedented call for a windfall tax on 'war-profiteering' energy companies.
ISME has called on the Finance Minister to impose a higher levy on power generation firms, and use the money to fund support.
The Irish Small and Medium Enterprise Association has admitted it's odd for a business group like that to demand a corporate tax hike.
But it says energy companies are making eye-watering profits, while everyone else is scrambling to turn unnecessary lights off.
Chief Executive Neil McDonnell says nobody needed a crystal ball to see this catastrophe.
"I'm looking at the national risk assessment from 2017 and it analysed and described all the risks we're seeing happening now."
David Horgan from Petrol Resources says that one of the prime factors for this mess is Russia 'playing games' with gas.
"What's happened this year that we've imposed very tough sanctions on the Russian economy and the Russians are retaliating by playing games over gas."
Meanwhile, the ESB has proposed sending prompts to users to 'beat the peak' - the hours of 5pm to 7pm - to avoid shortages.
Trinity College Adjunct Professor John Fitzgerald says it could come as an add-on to the weather on radio stations:
"'Tonight is a night where you could run the washing machine or dishwasher', other nights say, 'actually could you delay your washing until tomorrow'."
Householders are facing an average bill hike of about €26 next month to keep the lights on.
