The number of people having their gas and electricity cut off has dropped. Gas disconnections were down by 15.86% last year and electricity disconnections were down by 30.86%.

The Commission for Energy Regulation (CER) says the decline can be linked to the installation of 'Pay as you Go' metres.

CER also says there is anecdotal evidence that a large proportion of properties disconnected were actually vacant.

It estimates that over one-third of gas disconnections were in vacant properties, while 42% of electricity disconnections were in vacant premises.

the CER says that the ESB and Bord Gais are introducing a new process where sites thought to be vacant will be identified during the disconnection process by the network technician that visits them.

Both networks introduced this process at the beginning of March. The CER says the next disconnection report - to be published in April - will identify the number of disconnected sites deemed to be vacant in March.

The CER adds that while this data is not available yet, it has used proxy figures for vacant sites last year.

Using these variable numbers, it says that if a site is not reconnected to electricity within five weeks, it is considered to be vacant. While if a site is not reconnected to a gas supply within six months, it is considered to be vacant as well.

On average in 2013, it is estimated that some 40% of disconnected electricity sites were empty, as they remained disconnected five weeks after disconnection. In gas, it is estimated that approximately 36% of sites were vacant.