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AROUND 20,000 PEOPLE are still without power after Storm Darragh caused widespread outages.
A crew from France was welcomed at Rosslare Europort today, after they were called in to help the ESB make restorations faster.
There has been longstanding cooperation between electricity network operators in Ireland, the UK and France, providing support to each other in challenging times.
ESB Networks previously travelled to France to help them in the aftermath of Storm Ciarán. Now in the aftermath of a weekend Status Red weather warnings, France is returning the favour.
So far, ESB Networks and its partner contractors have restored power to 375,000 people impacted by Storm Darragh.
The 60 skilled personnel from Enedis – the ESB’s French counterpart – have been deployed to the North West, Midlands and South East this evening, where cutsomers were hit hardest.
Nicholas Tarrant, Managing Director of ESB Networks, said Storm Darragh has been the most damaging storm for the country since Storm Ophelia in 2017.
“We have a proud track record of supporting neighbouring countries if requested by electricity network operators following major storm damage.
“Due to the severity and significant scale of the damage following Storm Darragh, some customers could be without power for approximately a week so we hope that this will help us to restore power as soon as possible in those worst affected areas.”
The weather warnings may have elapsed, but Storm Darragh continues to have far-reaching consequences.
Uisce Éireann is working to reconnect all customers to water supply. However, it warned that there a number of locations that will take longer to restore supply to as they’re areas where ongoing power outages have impacted treatment plants and network pumping stations.
Ferry services from Dublin and Holyhead were cancelled today due to infrastructure damage at the Welsh port over the weekend
Tomorrow’s early sailings have also been cancelled.
Irish Road Haulage Association president Ger Hyland told RTÉ radio today that some of his members have trucks waiting for trailers on both sides of the Irish Sea.
“This is something that’s part of living on an island,” he said. “We just have to get on with it and we live with it.”
“But it’s not easy on our members,” he said, explaining that “for the next two days the trucks are going to be idle”.
The delays will have a knock-on effect on supply chains for days to come as costs mount for drivers and their employers.
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Well done all involved not easy work
Great work!! Nice to see such inter-country assistance/ expertise in action. Kudos to our ESB crews, got my power resumed breakfast time this morning… them lads put in a solid shift all weekend
@Frank Mc Carthy: Great to see your powered restored at breakfast time. I hope you raised a toast to all their determined efforts.
@Frank Mc Carthy: My God, you’re 100% right Frank. It’s very out of chatacter. Check the temperature maybe?
@Louis Jacob: ??? Lost me there I’m afraid…… just trolling???
@Frank Mc Carthy: For once I’m not trolling. I’m only having a joke. I just thought you’d be a privatize everything advocate. Maybe I have the wrong guy.
@Frank Mc Carthy: It’s very out of chatacter Frank. It’s probably the French expression for ‘more power to them’
@Louis Jacob: For once you’re not trolling? I haven’t noticed if you have or haven’t in the past,but if you were a serial troller,you’d be a Head troller. Like Yorkshire chap said at Guillotine,heads t’roll lads,heads t’roll.
@Larry Betts: Lol. I’m not a troll Larry. Sometimes people ask for it. But I wouldn’t be any good at it. My sense of humour isn’t great.
@Louis Jacob: As I said,I never noticed if you were,which is a good sign. Too many people come on here with negative comments criticising other people’s point of view without contributing anything positive to the discussion. This site works well when there’s a good mix of serious observation,a bit of lighthearted banter,and the freedom to say what you want without others posting insults or negative comments and nothing more.
@Larry Betts: 100%
@Louis Jacob: Just checked other discussions. One person on last night left two offensive replies,one which was later removed. Back on tonight,not only questioning a person’s sexuality,but being deeply offensive about it. Absolutely no purpose of contributing anything positive apart from being as obnoxious as possible.
@Larry Betts: nice one Larry!!
@Larry Betts: ti’s a cesspit lately but what can you do?
@Frank Mc Carthy: Calling others Trolls when you Troll every single Trump article relentlessly. Pot kettle
@Larry Betts: get a room
@Frank Mc Carthy: ‘those lads’. Not ‘them lads’.
One thing puzzles me, as a country prone to storms, due to its location in the North Atlantic, would it not be cheaper in the long run to put the power cables underground?
@Larissa Caroline Nikolaus: We are years behind here
@Larissa Caroline Nikolaus: I really don’t understand how possible it would be to dig trenches over every inch of ground nearly all over the country to bury cables and connect them to every building by raising one connection at a time.
@Larissa Caroline Nikolaus: Jesus wept. Another genius in the making.
@Larry Betts: Don’t need to bury ‘all of them’ but surely an evolution of practise? Like they’re so fat and lazy they cant preempt this? Maybe they’ve worked out that they actually get paid more to be a bit rubbish, anyway all points are moot as profits are the only concern.
@Larissa Caroline Nikolaus: I think the logistics would be enormous, but good idea, Tesla was experimenting with sending electricity through the air.
This co-operation has been going on for years.
How come the army haven’t been called in here and why are people allowed to go without power for 7 days or more? Why no stock of portable generators? Our electricity costs are almost the highest in Europe and a lot of these people are probably on wells they can’t use either.
@Daniel Wilson: The downright and absolute ignorance of this comment is woeful. What would the army do? Are they trained in repairing overhead networks? Do the army climb poles? Think, for once, will you?
@Daniel Wilson: wow. You must be taking the piss.
You can’t possibly be this oblivious to reality!
The ESB have outsourced to the french for over a decade, sure a mister teflon ob must have a hand in such deals
@James Brennan: Have you some kind of brain injury? We send people to France and other countries to help with storm damage, and they are reciprocating it’s as simple as that. There’s no outsourcing, nothing just helping each other. We have a mental crisis too it would appear.
@Paul O’Mahoney: best thing is to mute these posters. I started doing it and it greatly cuts down on the waffle that some posters go on with
@Toca Stories: Only get to hear what you like, it’s a splendid world view imo
@Thesaltyurchin: I think she’s referring to the trolling bs artists that plague this site.
@James Brennan: the French are v.welcome. we have no electricity or water but I realize it is a first world problem Take a look at Ukraine and Gaza. It is a swap arrangement. ESB went over to help France when they had problems
@Fergus O’Donnell: They can be quite entertaining imo, I’m part troll myself.
No comments on the article where an Antifa, leftie was arrested for murdering the United CEO?
@Lewis Armstrong:
They’re afraid of what people might call Mr Thompson.
@Lewis Armstrong: No comments on your lot attacking refugees in Athlone. You know this country not New York
@Lewis Armstrong: you mean anti-fascists?
That you and your ilk think that fascism is okay is kind of depressing.
We have hundreds of engineers arriving in our country every week. I wouldn’t have thought we needed help from France
@N D K: yup. They are all engineers and doctors.
Besides we need more university educated Deliveroo cyclists.
2023 , 40+ Irish technician’s helped the aftermath of Storm Cirain in Brittany, returning the favour
Friends of mine in Boyle are still without power. Do we not have some small generators in storage to deal with this kind of developing world level government incompetence?
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