Thousands of homes still without power after Storm Barra

Storm Barra brought strong winds to Ireland earlier this week (Andy Gibson/PA)

Around 3,000 homes and properties remain without power in the wake of Storm Barra.

The storm battered parts of the island across Tuesday and Wednesday, leaving thousands without power, closing schools and causing considerable damage.

ESB said that as of 5.40pm on Thursday, around 3,000 customers remain without power, with Kerry, Sligo and Leitrim worst affected.

A spokesperson said: “ESB Networks has moved crews from less impacted areas of the country today to assist colleagues in the most severely impacted areas to reconnect customers as fast as they safely can.

Cork County Council and ESB employees help to clear the road and restore power in Timoleague, West Cork (Andy Gibson/PA)

“Crews will continue to work into the night doing everything they can to restore power to as many remaining customers as possible.

“Unfortunately, small pockets of customers will be without power overnight due to the severity of the damage and we apologise for the difficulty this causes.”

The major storm brought gusts of more than 130km per hour to parts of the country, toppling trees and causing localised flooding in some places.

Schools in some counties remained closed for two days, only reopening on Thursday.