Power cut affects 500 businesses

CORK’S business leaders are seeking an urgent meeting with ESB chiefs after the city was hit by its second major power cut in a year.

Almost 500 city centre businesses were left without electricity after a fault in the network at about 1.20pm yesterday.

The historic English Market, which was packed with lunchtime diners and shoppers, was plunged into darkness. Dozens of shops, restaurants and pubs had to close temporarily after cash registers and other equipment stopped working.

Some traders lost several hundred euro worth of stock stored in freezers.

One restaurant owner who was forced to shut down the kitchen said her turnover was down 70% as a result.

“This was a serious situation,” she said.

“It happened right in the middle of lunch.

“We lost power at 1.20pm and it didn’t come back on until 3.40pm.

“We couldn’t serve teas or coffees, hot meals, soups or chowder. We could only serve cold food and minerals.

“My turnover was down about 70% and I still have to pay the people who work for me.”

A spokesman for ESB Networks blamed a “cable fault” at its Liberty Street station which disrupted power supply to customers on the Grand Parade, South Mall, Princes Street, Marlboro Street, Oliver Plunkett Street, and St Patrick’s Street.

He said crews responded immediately after the first call came in at about 1.20pm.

He said they identified the source of the fault quickly, isolated it and worked to restore power as fast as possible.

Some customers had power restored within an hour but others were waiting for over two hours.

Donal Healy, Cork Business Association chief executive, said his members are concerned at the situation.

“This was the second major fault affecting the city centre in a year. And yesterday’s fault hit the hospitality sector at their busiest time — lunchtime.”

Mr Healy said he was told that the previous fault was caused by an “overload on the system”.

He is now seeking an urgent meeting with ESB officials to discuss the issue.

“We can’t have outages like this every so often,” he said.

Mr Healy is seeking assurances about the quality of the city’s power network, and its ability to handle demand, especially at peak times.

He wants a system put in place whereby business leaders can get access to information about power faults, and updates from repair crews, so these updates can be passed on to businesses as soon as possible.