ESB hope to have power restored to the Aran Islands tonight

The ESB says it hopes to have power restored to the Aran Islands by tonight.

Islanders have been without electricity or phone lines since early Friday morning - due to a fault on a sub-sea-cable.

The ESB says it's the first time in 20 years that it's encountered the problem.

Spokesperson Bernadine Maloney has said the sea conditions make the repair job difficult: “The visability around the cable, you are talking about ten metres of water at the moment, the sea is quite choppy at the moment so visability is quite poor.”