AROUND 4,000 HOMES are still without power after Storm Darragh, with rural areas worst affected.

That’s down from 8,000 yesterday, as the ESB makes progress on its goal to restore power to everyone by Saturday.

Around 375,000 homes were impacted by the storm, which is said to have been the most destructive one since Ophelia in 2017.

A spokesperson for the ESB said that restoration efforts have become protracted as some lines taking hours to repair only serve one or two homes.

These small clusters are almost exclusively in rural areas, including Carrick-on-Shannon and the wider south-west Leitrim area, north Roscommon, Arklow and south-west Wicklow, and County Offaly.

Around 3,000 ESB personnel and contractors have been consistently working to fix faults nationwide. They are aided by a crew of 60 from their French counterpart Enedis, who have been ferried in to bolster restoration efforts in the north Roscommon area.

Another 40 workers from Northern ireland Electricity Networks are also helping.

The ESB says it will likely have power restored to all homes affected by the Storm by the end of the week.

Eir has said that less than 1% of mobile network sites are offline, down from a peak of 15% last Saturday, 7 December.

Over 82,500 broadband faults have been repaired.

However, the company says it can’t currently provide a clear estimate of when broadband will be restored to all customers.

“It will take several days to fully assess the situation.”