The chief executive of the ESB, Paddy Hayes, has said that the energy company will not be compensating customers who have been without power for days or have incurred costs for alternative accommodation.
Speaking on RTÉ radio’s Today with Claire Byrne show, Mr Hayes said that there had been a “whole of government approach” under which people could seek compensation through the humanitarian assistance scheme.
“The most important thing that we can do and we're trying to do it and we're doing it, is getting customers back connected with electricity.”
Mr Hayes said that he did not know how much the impact of the storm was going to cost, but it would be significant. “It will cost tens of millions.”
It was likely that costs would increase in 2026, he said. “Ultimately, that's something that gets scrutinised. And in 2026, it's likely that that will add those charges which are allowed.
"It will find their way back into the overall cost of our distribution system network.”
"There was a cost associated with the repairs being carried out to the storm damage. This had been “a devastating and destructive storm, the likes of which we have never seen before.”
Mr Hayes said he understood the frustration of people who remained without power, but ESB crews were doing their best after an extreme weather event which had been “a weather bomb” which had caused extensive damage to the network.
“We're seeing two or three times as much damage to our network as we've ever seen in storms like Storm Ophelia or Storm Darwin in the past. And it's that extent of damage, particularly in some of the areas, which are more remote from the network.
"It's that extent of damage that's caused the time taken to restore power. And the way in which the system works is and electricity runs from the larger areas of the grid into the more remote areas. And what we find when we're restoring power is it's absolutely critical to get the large backbone lines back first because that can feed everybody and feed the maximum numbers.
"In some cases, as we're getting to the numbers where you've got smaller people fed off smaller parts of the grid, we can find more damage that hasn't previously been discovered until we've restored power to the backbone.”
That was why the date for restoration of power had changed for some customers, he explained.
The ESB will be taking stock of the system following Storm Éowyn, which he described as a “once in a generation event”.
“We will be taking stock after this and talking to the climate scientists and identifying whether and how we need to change our network. If there is an expectation or a probability of events like this happening more frequently.”
Mr Hayes also pointed out that the reason why Ireland had power lines above ground rather than underground was because of the “population dispersion” and because having power lines above ground gave them more flexibility when changes were required.
The cost of putting power lines underground would also be very high.

“We'll be looking at things like we've talked about the potential for higher wind speeds in the future. We also have spent a lot of money over the last four or five years on the resilience of the system, €950 million.
"We would be looking at our next five year programme, which has already been proposed, and would be taking stock before that's finalised now to see whether we need to put additional investment into that.”
Another challenge for the ESB was tree planting patterns, which would have to be examined.
“If we are going to expect winds like this in the future, it's really important that we sit down and we're planning to sit down with the other stakeholders here and the other people who have an influence here to ensure that we can find a way of making sure that electricity, infrastructure and trees can work.”