Thousands of householders and businesses in north Mayo remain in the dark this evening without an electricity supply,  following a major breakdown at an ESB  substation overnight.

A spokesperson for the ESB told Midwest News that a major issue occurred at the Cunghill 110KV substation station at midnight last night and that is the cause of the major outage. The spokesperson said that crews have been repairing the fault all night and throughout the day today and while it was hoped to have the power restored to most areas by 3pm this afternoon - large areas of Belmullet, Bangor Erris, Bellacorrick and Crossmolina remain without power, with an estimated restoration time now pushed out until 7pm this evening.

Customers are advised to check the ESB powercheck app for the latest updates

Erris based Fine Gael councillor Gerry Coyle says it's a disaster for many elderly and sick people without electricity since last night. He insists that the region deserves a better service...