Number of homes affected by storms rises to 5,000

Power has been restored to the majority of homes affected by outages caused by last night's storm.

5,000 homes in Cork, Westmeath and Wicklow had been affected however crews from ESB Networks have been working on the problem since early morning.

Around 500 homes in Fermoy in Cork are still without power this lunchtime along with less than 30 homes in Ballybeag in Wicklow.

Power has been restored fully in Mullingar.

Elsewhere DART services remain suspended between Bray and Greystones in Co Wicklow - as a result of lightning damage to overhead lines.

Met Éireann forecaster Joanna Donnelly said the weather conditions for the coming nights will not be as severe.

"There will still be some showers around and some of them will be heavy," she said.

"[There is] still a risk of thunder too for the rest of today and tonight as well. Not quite as significant as it was last night, but certainly it is still there."