There is extensive anger across the county today following the major disruption to electricity supply to 10,000 households in the county over the weekend.
A major breakdown at an ESB substation overnight Saturday night was the cause of the outage that effected large areas of north Mayo all day yesterday.
The service was restored to the majority of customers just after 7pm yesterday evening.
Areas of Belmullet, Bangor Erris, Bellacorrick, Ballina and Crossmolina were the worst areas affected by the outage. But some customers were also affected in Ballyhaunis.
A spokesperson for the ESB told Midwest News that a major issue occurred at the Cunghill 110KV substation station just after midnight yesterday and that was the cause of the major outage.
The spokesperson said that crews began working on repairs from the early hours of yesterday morning and worked throughout the day yesterday and into yesterday evening to restore the supply.
But listeners to Midwest News today are demanding more answers and are demanding answers .
Among the issues raised are the number of nursing homes that were without power yesterday for many hours – impacting residents’ access to lifts, on many disability aids, and the provision of heat and food.
Some listeners claim that some nursing homes did not have access to a generator when the power supply failed.
Others have been expressing grave concerns about many elderly people and people living alone who lost the power in their mobile phones and were left isolated and out of contact.
Issues also arose around the safety pendants that many elderly or ill people rely on.
The latest biotanks that are used for perculation/sewerage in new homes were also out of action for extended hours and the cost to the environment and to householders who have to pay to have them re-started has also been an issue.
While in newly built homes there are no fire-places and there is no alternative source of heat when the electricity fails.
These are just some of the issues raised by listeners today about the protracted break-down in electricity supply yesterday…
Midwest News Editor Teresa O’Malley has been speaking to Consumers’ Association of Ireland’s, Castlebar councilor Michael Kilcoyne, who is also a member of the HSE West Forum about the impact of the outage…
Midwest News has again today contacted ESB network for comment on the major outage and its impact and we are awaiting a response.
