A Leitrim woman has described living without power for 16 days as "surreal", saying it feels like "living in the Twilight Zone".
While power has been restored to over 764,000 homes, farms, and businesses since the record-breaking storm hit on January 24th, the impact of Storm Éowyn is still being felt by 3,500 customers who remain without electricity supply.
Some customers have been told they may see their estimated restoration times change over the coming days as ESB Networks make progress to repair the extensive damage in the areas with the largest number of faults.
The latest update for some households in Ballinamore, Co Leitrim, is that their power is expected to be restored by 9pm on Sunday.
However, one local told BreakingNews.ie that this will not come to fruition, as the fault is not currently being dealt with.
"It's like you go through the seven stages of grief. At times you're like: It's grand, it's fine. We're managing.' And other days you're thinking: 'What are we doing? What's going on?'"
"They [the ESB] haven't said anything. The restoration time is getting pushed out and pushed out and pushed out. It's currently saying that's it's tomorrow night at 9pm, but I know the area and I know where the fault is. The fault hasn't been touched.
"The forest where the fault line is, a harvester turned up yesterday and there was a man there to operate it but the ESB never turned up. There's no ESB trucks around the town.
"There's no one around the town. Nobody seems to be doing anything."
The woman said the ESB helpline tells her there is nothing more they can do except remind her of her estimated restoration time, but that provides little comfort as she believes it is not accurate.
"You ring the ESB helpline and they're telling you: 'Well there's nothing more we can do. We can see here you're going to get it back Sunday'.
"It's not going to be Sunday, there's lines down, there's no signs of them being repaired. And, you know, it was -2 degrees during the week and we all have small children, it's getting hard to heat.
We feel let down, we feel forgotten about. There's nothing from the Government
"It's hard to get gas cannisters for petrol for generators. You go to the petrol station and you have people in front of you and all they're doing is filling up cannisters and bottles for petrol for generators.
"Our generator costs €20 a day to run and all I get from it is a couple of lights. It's a low power generator and we get nothing from the ESB.
"And then I heard from local councillors that all the foreign workers who came over to help apparently have gone back home. It's a bitter pill to swallow considering we're in the third week with no power. It's horrific."
"We feel let down, we feel forgotten about. There's nothing from the Government, everyone's just annoyed and fed up."
"We've got nothing from the Government, no compensation. All that's been offered is showers and you have to book. I'm sure you can imagine taking small children into a shower where there's people been before you and people after."
The National Emergency Co-ordination Group (NECG) met again on Saturday to continue to coordinate efforts to restore power, water, telecommunications and other services following Storm Éowyn.
ESB Networks said it was continuing to mobilise all available resources to restore power connections as soon as possible.
The continued power cuts come amid controversy for the electricity distribution company after its boss said customers would pay for damage caused by Storm Éowyn.
ESB chief executive Paddy Hayes said damage done by the storm to the electricity network would be “significant” and run into the tens of millions.
“It’s likely that those charges which are allowed there will find their way back into the overall cost of our distribution system network,” he told RTÉ on Tuesday.
Mr Hayes also said the Public Service Obligation (PSO) levy would still be charged to customers who were without power, as it funds investment in the network.
Tánaiste Simon Harris said the comments were “extraordinarily insensitive” and a “slightly more sensitive approach” was needed.
In a statement on Friday evening, Mr Hayes said he wanted to address concerns raised around his comments, saying he had no intention of being insensitive.
“I can only imagine the hardship for customers who have been without electricity for many days in the aftermath of Storm Éowyn and my heart goes out to them. I can understand why, in answering a question about costs, my response might have caused concern,” he said.
“I had absolutely no intention of being insensitive or adding to the stress facing customers at this difficult time. I should have made it clear that it is far too early either to assess the costs of repairing the damage caused by this storm, or to address how those costs will be met.”
ESB said the costs of network repairs from the storm will not impact on electricity prices during 2025 and, in the longer term, the regulator will review these with ESB Networks before the composition of network charges from October 2026 onwards is determined.
