ESB defends Aran Islands power failure saying it is the first in 20 years

The ESB has moved to defend measures to restore power to the Aran Islands.

Islanders have been without electricity or phone lines since early Friday morning - due to a fault on a sub-sea-cable - the first such incident in 20 years.

The ESB says the required equipment has arrived on shore this afternoon and it's hoped supply will be restored by this evening.

Spokesperson Bernadine Maloney says it's simply not possible to have a back up facility in place: “These are quite large pieces of equipment, and quite expensive as well.

“This is the first fault on this sub sea cable in twenty years, having generators standing by, awaiting a fault like this, they wouldn't work after twenty years of none use.”