Some 26,000 homes, farms and businesses remain without power.

Many faults have been restored but an additional 10,000 customers have lost electricity since 6am this morning.

Cork, the greater Dublin area and eastern counties of Leinster are the main areas affected.

Teams are working on restoring power to as many as possible by tonight, though some customers may have to wait longer.

Due to ice and snow on the roads, access is the greatest impediment to restoring supply.

“As of 12:20pm, there are 350 faults affecting 26,000 homes and business who are without electricity, predominantly in the east of the country and Co Cork.

“In the normal course of events, this would be a very manageable number of faults for ESB Networks to deal with, but access issues due to snow and ice are hugely hampering our efforts to restore electricity supplies,” a spokesman for ESB said.

Difficult

“We understand how difficult it is to not have electricity in these conditions and so our staff are focused on trying to restore supply to as many people as possible as quickly as possible.

“There are deep snow drifts in various parts of the country and so it is taking our crews a very long time to travel to each fault. It is also more difficult than normal to then carry out a repair.”

Unlikely to restore power to all

The ESB spokesman continued: “We will continue to work with the emergency services and local authorities to ensure the safety of the pubic and to minimise disruption and are seeking assistance from other state agencies to help us with access.

“However, it is unlikely that we will be able to restore supply to all customers today as a result of the conditions. Updates and more specific restoration times will issue later today.”

Areas affected

The main areas affected, at the moment, are parts of Carrigaline, Kilmoney, Trabolgan, Aghada and Kinsale in the south of the country and Swords, Lusk, Skerries, Navan, Julianstown, Rathcoole, Duleek, Drybridge, Dunsandle, Allenwood, Prosperous and Saggart in the east.

Click here for real-time information about service interruptions in your area.

Safety

ESB Networks has issued a number of safety warnings to farmers about low-hanging and fallen wires.

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ESB advice: How to remain safe if you lose electricity

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