Some 180,000 households and businesses remain without electricity as crews from Austria and Finland are due to arrive on Tuesday morning to help ESB restore power following Storm Éowyn.
Technicians from ESB counterparts in the UK have already been deployed to the worst-affected areas with further crews from electricity network operators in France and the Netherlands also due to provide support this week.
To date, power has been restored to 588,000 premises affected by Friday’s storm, although up to 100,000 homes and businesses are likely to be without power for the rest of the week.
A further 74,000 people remained without water as of Monday night, according to Uisce Éireann, which warned that supplies for a further 100,000 people are at risk in areas where power is yet to be restored.
Crews from Austria are set to arrive at Dublin this morning by ferry while technicians from Finland are set to land on a chartered flight at around 11am, an ESB spokesman said.
New Minister for Housing James Browne, meanwhile, has defended the Government’s response to Storm Éowyn describing it as “a storm without precedent” which had “double the impact” in terms of the numbers left without power.
Storm Éowyn was the “absolute worst on record” and “nothing has been left on the pitch” by any of the State agencies involved, he told RTÉ radio’s Morning Ireland.
Initially there had been 768,000 people without power, 588,000 of which now had power restored by ESB teams in very challenging circumstances where the weather continued to be difficult, he said.
Mr Browne acknowledged that would be small comfort to the 180,000 people still without power, but the capacity was not there to restore power to all in what had been an unprecedented weather event, he said.
“The State is leaving nothing on the pitch to get everything done, power back, water back, communications back as quickly as possible,” he said.
There will be a review to see what can be done in preparation for future extreme weather events which are becoming more common, he said.
MEP Ciaran Mullooly said the European commissioner for crisis management had confirmed she offered emergency help to Ireland last Wednesday but only received a request for help, including generators and crews, at 4pm on Saturday.
Responding, Mr Browne explained that a request for assistance could not be made until the event was over and it was clear what help was required. “Once we assessed what that damage was, we then immediately put in a request to the European Union for specifically what was needed.”
The ongoing unsettled weather since Friday’s storm, which brought record gusts of 183km/h, is set to continue over the coming days though temperatures are expected to climb.
Showery outbreaks of rain on this morning will be followed by sunny spells and scattered showers in the afternoon, according to Met Éireann.
Wednesday, meanwhile, will be dry with long spells of sunshine and highs of 5 to 8 degrees. However, there will be scattered showers across parts of Connacht and Ulster with the chance of some sleet.
Frost and icy patches are expected to develop on Wednesday night with lowest temperatures of -2 to 1 degrees, before climbing to highs of 5 to 9 degrees on Thursday which is set to have sunny spells and isolated showers.
Conditions are set to become milder but more unsettled from Thursday night onwards.
Highest temperatures of 8 to 11 degrees are expected on Friday which is set to be a cloudier day with scattered patches of light rain.
Temperatures are expected to then climb to highs of 10 to 13 degrees on Saturday with further outbreaks of rain and drizzle spreading from the southwest.
Conditions for Sunday and early next week will be “quite unsettled”, according to Met Éireann with further outbreaks of rain and showers.