Local councillors have engaged in a "brutal and awkward" debate with Firmus over the company's energy prices.
It comes as Derry residents are "terrified" over the rising cost of energy, with calls for further immediate support to be given.
During a virtual meeting of Derry and Strabane District Council, which also included Firmus representatives Niall Martindale and Paul Standfield, one councillor went as far as to call the company "despicable".
Read more: Firmus announces further gas price hike for Northern Ireland
The gas supplier, which is the biggest in Northern Ireland, announced last month that a further 16.31% price hike will be applied to Derry and across the Ten Towns network in May.
Making his opening comments during the meeting, Mr Martindale said the company hoped to announce price decreases "soon".
He said: “We fully accept and indeed empathise with everyone across Northern Ireland but particularly in the North West area who are subject to all matters and means of cost of living crisis and we accept that energy is one of those key matters. In that context, we are very much in the eye of the storm and we accept that.
“What we want to do as a business is remain strong through this period.
"We want to remain strong for customers in the Derry area and right through Northern Ireland to get through this crisis so we come out the other side in a stronger and better place and for that matter, our erstwhile hope is to be announcing price decreases for those in Derry, our Ten Towns area and also Belfast as soon as we can possibly do so.
"We are at this time shackled by the commodity prices on the wholesale gas market and regrettably we have had to pass those through on a number of occasions.”
SDLP's Rory Farrell told the Firmus representatives that it was about "to be an incredibly awkward and incredibly brutal conversation".
Mr Farrell said: “The magnitude of these price increases are relentless, they are constant, people are wondering when are these going to stop.
"People are fed up with these price rises, people are genuinely struggling with these price rises and ultimately people cannot afford these price rises and they shouldn’t have to.
"These price rises are sickening and they are scandalous.”
“There is this myth that Firmus is a small-time operation based in Antrim and what’s largely ignored is that Firmus is owned by Equitix who is an asset management company with assets in the region of £8billion.
“Equitix is 75% owned by Tetragon Financial Group which boasts on its website of assets of $37billion.
"Those are very deep pockets, much deeper than the combined pockets of the customers you serve in one of the most deprived areas of Western Europe.”
DUP Alderman Hilary McClintock also didn’t hold back when it came to expressing her thoughts on Firmus energy.
She said: “It is despicable that a company like Firmus and its parent body is making such a fortune and yet seeing the misery people in our area are suffering at the moment.
“It’s time that the energy companies did something to help the situation. They should be ashamed of themselves when they see the misery people are living in at this time.”
Meanwhile, People Before Profit councillor Shaun Harkin said there was a need for a radical change to the current system.
“We think it is immoral you are making any profits at this point given the scale of struggling and suffering that exists in our communities.
"We would like to hear if Firmus is going to commit to not making any profit at all during this crisis and if you commit to that then it means you can reduce your prices immediately.
"We believe you should transfer all the profits you have made over the last year from our residents in our district through these massive price hikes into the council-led hardship fund we have set up.
"Can you clarify if people here in Derry are paying over the odds in terms of gas than in other parts of the North and if it is true, will you pay that money back to residents who have been paying over the odds?"
Commenting on the criticism about Firmus’ profits, Mr Martindale said: “Every individual business must stand on its own two feet and that goes for Firmus Supply.
"We will be posting our accounts to Companies House in a number of months and I would invite any councillors to have a look at those accounts.
"What they will reflect is the fact that we have been paying as a business much more than the tariffs have been collecting from customers right across Northern Ireland.”
However, Aontu councillor Emmet Doyle expressed some very frank and scathing comments towards the Firmus representatives.
“Let me put this scenario to you," Cllr Doyle said. "I got a call from a customer of your’s during the week. She works 20 hours a week and has two young fellows in the house.
"She comes home and makes the dinner for the kids as soon as they get home from school and when they are finished and they want to sit and watch TV she gets three hot water bottles and wraps each of them in a towel and they put them up their tops.
“From the recent accounts I’ve seen, your highest-paid director was paid £309,000 in that year and my question to you is how do you justify that against about what my constituents and your customers who you have a duty of care to, how can you justify the difference between how they live and the money that is being paid out as a result of the money that is being taken from your customers.”
However, Mr Martindale refuted suggestions the people of Derry were paying more than elsewhere in Northern Ireland.
Firmus' Interim Managing Director said: “That’s not the case. We do have two different markets and those markets at times are managed within the dynamics in which they operate.
“Let me reassure councillors that every customer whether you are in Derry, Newry or Belfast they will end up paying the same cost as what it cost us to purchase that gas on the wholesale market."
Concluding, Independent councillor Gary Donnelly said Mr Martindale's comments sounded like "excuses".
“What you are doing is untold damage to our community and I know that because I’m talking to people on a daily basis. I don’t want to hear excuses.
"I want to hear what you are going to do to stop the untold damage you are doing to our community.”
A proposal, which passed unanimously, was made by Councillor Farrell calling on the council to write to Firmus Energy, Equitix Investment Management Ltd and Tetragon Financial Group requesting a moratorium on gas prices in the Ten Towns area for the remainder of the financial year.
The motion also stated that the "council will write to the Department for Economy (DfE) and the Utility Regulator requesting a reduction in the profit cap for energy companies".
It was also requested that the council write to DfE and the Utility Regulator requesting a "review of the current system of regulation in comparison to the protections provided by the Energy Price Cap system currently in operation in Britain".
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