Ireland is to receive 17 generators from the European Union following a request for assistance, the European Commission has confirmed.
The EU has mobilised 13 power generators from the commission’s strategic reserve, rescEU, hosted in Poland, while a further four power generators are being provided by Denmark.
It comes as 142,000 households and businesses remain without electricity on Tuesday evening, following Storm Éowyn.
Crews from Austria and Finland arrived on Tuesday morning to help ESB restore power.
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In a statement on Tuesday, the commission said the EU’s Emergency Response Coordination Centre continues to closely monitor the situation and remains in “constant contact” with the Irish authorities, “ensuring that additional assistance can be promptly channelled if needed”.
Hadja Lahbib, EU commissioner for preparedness, crisis management and equality, said extreme weather events, like Storm Éowyn, “increasingly put Europe’s disaster resilience to the test”.
“But they also demonstrate the growing strength of our joint preparedness and solidarity efforts. Our thoughts are with all those affected and with the first responders in Ireland who are doing their best to bring life back to normal,” she said. “We are in this together.”
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 600,000 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 31,000 people remain without water as of Tuesday afternoon, according to Uisce Éireann.
The State water authority has deployed and installed generators at almost all of its plants, pumping stations and reservoirs “where it is feasible to do so,” it said.
“A final few are being added today to further reduce the number of customers without water. Having done so we are continuing to work closely with the ESB to prioritise the restoration of electricity supply in the remaining locations,” it said.
Crews from Austria arrived at Dublin by ferry on Tuesday while technicians from Finland landed on a chartered flight.
ESB has also warned the public to stay clear of any fallen lines, adding: “We have been made aware of several instances of potentially very dangerous incidents where members of the public have unknowingly approached fallen electricity infrastructure.”
Taoiseach Micheál Martin has promised to evaluate State agencies’ plans for extreme weather events amid expectations of stronger and more frequent destructive storms due to climate change.
[ Storm Éowyn: Roscommon reeling and counting the costOpens in new window ]
Speaking at a community response hub established to help those still without power and water following Storm Éowyn outside Athlone, Mr Martin again rejected calls to recall the Dáil early.
“In any event, the Dáil could do nothing this week that would in any way accelerate or speed up the restoration of electricity or indeed the restoration of water,” he said, promising that there would be political accountability when TDs met next week.
He defended the response from agencies, local authorities and central government, but said evaluation would take place not just of how State agencies responded but of how the National Emergency Coordination Group worked.
“The major concern will have to be the regularity and severity (of storms),” he said, pointing out the impact of Storm Éowyn was about double that of the previous winter storm. “The key issue will be then to look at all this in light of further severe storms of this kind, given climate change and given the clear connection between climate change and the severity of storms.”
Mr Martin also said claims the EU contacted Ireland to offer support tackling the impact of the storm on Wednesday but received no response until Saturday afternoon were “false”.
Earlier, Minister for Housing James Browne 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, 600,000 of whom have 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 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.
Mr Mullooly said that it had been known in advance that the storm was going to be “the worst storm Ireland ever saw”. Planning in terms of future funding to deal with infrastructure issues needed to commence immediately, he urged.
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.”
Separately, Minister for Social Protection Dara Calleary urged households affected by the storm to avail of assistance, saying those impacted should not be hungry or cold.
Speaking on RTÉ radio’s Morning Ireland, Mr Calleary said supports were available through the Humanitarian Assistance Fund and encouraged people to engage with community services. There are also supports available where homes have suffered structural damage.
“I want to really emphasise that people shouldn’t be hungry, that they shouldn’t be cold, please engage with the service and the vast experience of the Department of Social Protection right across the country,” he said.
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.
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