⚠️ Storm Éowyn - Fri 24.01.25 (**Please read Mod Instruction in OP.**)

I would have too but I'm in the same boat. I was able to work from home

ESB's 1800 number for Customer Service is not taking calls. The fault line is also giving out a different time to the PowerCheck site when putting in our MPRN. Which one is accurate? F*cked if I know. Need to talk to a human but there apparently is no way. They haven't tweeted since yesterday too…

From what I understand, our issue right now is a single transformer that caught fire last night. Ironically, the same transformer caught fire less than 2 years ago. The last time it happened, it took about 6 hours. The automated phone service says 11pm tomorrow. If that is the genuine estimate, I will stay in a hotel tonight and go home tomorrow. If it is Feb 5th, I need to figure out something more long term. Feb 5th seems to be an arbitrary estimate provided for many areas. If they could give a better estimate, people can plan properly.

They would need to be transparent on their rollout plan. Prioritize cities then towns, then densely populated villages, then less densely populated areas based off nursing homes, schools etc.

We have a small Aldi petrol 2kw & a diesel 7.8kw. Without a changeover switch we found all you can do is run an extension lead but with the switch we have the lights, sockets & well working, oh & Starlink. We kept a gas hob & have a log burner but with the generator running we have a Stanley range to supply hot water & heat the radiators.

The ESB have always been a place of excess salaries and pensions. The Irish Water superquango tried to emulate them during setup. Our utilities are badly managed. FFG won't change a thing.

Same with family over in Galway. The updates are pretty grim - thats when I can reach them that is :(

Just got a reply via Twitter DM. Quick everyone, to Twitter!

They told me what gets returned when inputting the MPRN is more accurate than what shows on Powercheck.

Agree, this is the issue and an incredibly worsening problem coming down the line. The creeping in of privatisation policies: privatise the profits and socialise the losses.

Look at England, totally screwed with the dumbing down of expertise, knowledge and experience across a range of key services. Sometimes the country feels like it’s held together by a wing and prayer.

And here we learn that decent maintenance is not a policy and is mostly ignored causing deeper and more prolonged devastation on the public in times like these. I didn’t think we were following the U.K. down the rabbit hole, thought politicians had learnt their lesson after the idiocy of Brexit.. but no, weaker systems all round with fat cats sitting on piles of shite.

Hope the west of Ireland raises hell after this is over.

Two factors, if addressed, could have prevented at least 7 poles in my area from collapsing

1) Removing Leylandii trees and 2) Removing Ash trees.

Leylandii trees are a weed and shouldn't be anywhere near power cables. Ash trees are rotting with dieback and are weak. They have known this for years.

But bike sheds and mobile phone pouches and security huts and more junior minister expenses and funding BAM...

We have one of the worst climates imaginable to still be putting up wooden power poles that rot and need frequent replacement. Fibreglass poles are 200% stronger than wood, for starters, let alone having greater lifespans and cutting down maintenance costs.

Back when I was getting the 60 power interruptions a year that no one believes, I had an aggravating discussion with the ESB area manager. When I asked him what was causing all the brief power interruptions, he said he didn't know, but rattled off a list of possible issues, one of which was 'wet wood', something you won't get with composite poles.

My favourite of the many excuses was swans - swans flying into the lines of my circuit 60 times a year.

No, its probably a large fault which when repaired exposes 5 smaller faults.

It is important to understand. They don't know all the faults there are yet and will only do so as other faults are repaired.

They have been trying to get ahead of it though by sending assessors through areas which large outages so they can see are there obvious smaller ones associated with the same group. There will be ones missed though until they fix the larger ones

Anyone know what is covered in the emergency fund. I've some tiles of my roof and my shed is totally destroyed and its contents all over the farmers field and my back garden.

Work colleague from Connemara has the roof of some building in his garden and he doesn't know where it came from…

GFS Sunday a deceiving looking little low that is packing a punch for the NW. Certainly not needed. In mph. 143km/h offshore. 95 to 125km/h overland. Just to emphasis nothing to worry about at this stage.

This debacle shows how woefully inadequate we are planning and organizing things for ourselves, and thinking long term. We think like it's the 1980s and every problem can be solved by emigration.

People complain about Dublin politicians but a lot of the politicians in the Dail are rural and the same parties (FFG) are elected all the time with a few whipping boy parties.

People defer to Dublin and Dublin defers to the EU, MNCs. Before we'd defer to the UK and the Church.

We have to start taking responsibility for ourselves. What actually do we want ?

You look at the Dutch, below sea level, small country with a much larger population than us. And they have excellent public facilities, livable cities, excellent engineering and one of the largest exporter of agriculture products in the world.