"Element of stupidity" to turning off electricity to Laois homes in freezing weather, says councillor

A Laois councillor has said there’s “an element of stupidity” to switching off electricity to homes during the ongoing cold weather.  

Fianna Fáil Cllr Paschal McEvoy was reacting to the ESB’s decision to go ahead with a scheduled power cut in Stradbally. 

The ESB said the outage impacting 110 properties was scheduled to facilitate a new housing development in Rathmore, Stradbally. 

However, Cllr McEvoy couldn’t understand why the work needed to be done during the freezing weather.  

“There’s an element of stupidity about turning off electricity in this weather,” he remarked.  

He noted reports of people having to use hotels elsewhere in the country because they had no power. “I find it very strange to tell the truth,” he said of the situation in Stradbally.  

Cllr McEvoy said the cold weather was only expected to last a few days and he didn't know why the work wasn’t just postponed. 

He noted how reliant modern homes are on electricity with heat pumps now common in homes, which are also not being built with fireplaces anymore.

Cllr McEvoy recalled hpow a recent power cut in the town had illustrated how difficult it could be on home owners who were without electricty. 

“I had a girl in one of the new houses and everything went out and she didn’t know what to do,” he explained.  

A spokesperson for the ESB  said “ESB Networks carry out planned outages throughout the year for a number of different reasons including for essential public safety and the reliability of electricity supply, and other essential works such as to facilitate new connections.

This planned essential work during daytime hours today (Wednesday 8th, 9am to 4pm) in the Rathmore area is being carried out to divert a line around a site in order to facilitate the development of new local housing.”

The ESB said all customers impacted had been notified in advance by post.

“We appreciate the disruption that this planned outage will cause to impacted customers, and our crews will endeavour to complete the works earlier than 4pm,” they said.