LIVE: Thousands without power and water as Met Éireann issues fresh snow and ice warning

Met Éireann has issued a status yellow snow and ice warning for the whole country from midday on Monday for a 24-hour period. The forecaster said "wintry showers" will bring further snowfall. This will lead to hazardous travelling conditions with poor visibility and travel disruption expected. 

The entire country is also under a status yellow low temperature/ice warning until noon on Thursday. Under this warning, Met Éireann is predicting "very cold nights with widespread frost and ice". Temperatures will "struggle to get above freezing during the day". 

As of 5.15pm on Monday evening, some 17,000 homes, farms and businesses are without power, with most of these outages  located Kerry, Limerick and Tipperary.

A spokesperson for the ESB said work on power restoration to affected areas will "continue for a number of days in worst affected areas due to the hazardous weather conditions and accessibility challenges". 

As of 5.45pm, some 30,000 people were without water in Cork, Limerick, Kerry, Tipperary and Dublin where supplies are impacted by either bursts on the network or electrical outages at treatment plants or pumping stations. 

According to Uisce Éireann, supplies to a further 27,000 people in these counties, Wexford and Laois are also "at risk" due to low reservoir levels,

The utility said its teams are working to restore supply to affected areas. 

Meanwhile, An Post said deliveries have been "severely" impacted by the weather conditions. 

"It will not be possible to make letter or parcel deliveries on the majority of postal routes in counties Cork, Kerry, Kilkenny, Limerick, Tipperary and some parts of Wicklow," a spokesperson said. 

"Should conditions improve, deliveries will be attempted where it is safe to do so. Post Offices in the same counties are also impacted and while some may be able to open later once power and access are restored, many will remain closed today, Monday." 

In Tralee, the heavy snowfall caused the roof of the Tralee Sports Complex to collapse. The home of basketball Superleague side Garvey's Warriors, will be “closed indefinitely”.

Earlier, the National Emergency Co-ordination Group (NECG) met and director Keith Leonard said the key focus will be on trying to restore power and water to people.

Members of the Defence Forces were deployed yesterday and again today to support ESB networks in restoring power. Additionally, they assisted in reaching homes with limited access alongside the civil defence and other voluntary emergency groups.

Mr Leonard told RTÉ's Morning Ireland that key national agencies and local authorities had been working "extremely hard" with some 390 salt spreaders and snow ploughs covering over 13,000km of road networks on Sunday. He said there was enough salt and grit available to continue through the week.

Mr Leonard said the country would continue to see "wintry showers and extremely cold temperatures over the coming hours and days" with hazardous travel conditions likely to continue for the rest of the week.

34,000 still without power

An estimated 34,000 homes, farms and businesses are still without power as of Monday. Cork, Kerry, Limerick, Tipperary and Kilkenny continue to be the worst hit counties for power outages, the ESB said.

The company warned that power outages will continue over the coming days for some premises, but more major outages are unlikely.

However, it said on Sunday that it expects that power restoration in the worst affected areas "will take multiple days" as freezing temperatures and hazardous conditions are "slowing down restoration efforts"

Elsewhere, Uisce Éireann is working to restore supplies to approximately 40,000 people in, Cork, Limerick, Kerry and Tipperary. Supplies to a further 30,000 people are at risk due to low reservoir levels. 

According to Uisce Éireann, freezing weather conditions, coupled with rain or snow, are "impacting efforts and leading to delays" in repairing leaks.

Head of water operations, Margaret Attridge urged households, businesses and farmers "to protect outside taps and to insulate exposed pipes and tanks which are particularly vulnerable to freezing."

"We are asking people to check for leaks and to turn off water to exterior pipes or unoccupied premises.

"Alternatively, people may consider setting the heating for these areas to come on periodically at a lower temperature. This allows warm air to circulate and will help to prevent pipes and tanks from freezing in the cold weather," she added. 

Caitríona Twomey of Cork Penny Dinners, which provides food to the vulnerable, said that the charity has been receiving calls from people “trapped” in their homes looking for help.

“We’re taking out food to people who are trapped in their homes, mostly in the county but some in the city.

“Some people are stranded but we’ll up our game like we did during the Beast from the East to help people.” The Penny Dinners board will meet to discuss whether it will open late this week to provide soup to the vulnerable during the cold weather at night.

The cold weather can be a challenge for the older and more vulnerable, Jackie Fitzgibbon of Friendly Call, a service which provides daily phone calls to older or isolated people living in Cork, said.

“We have a small bus to take people to medical appointments but all their appointments have been cancelled today,” Ms Fitzgibbon said.

“So we’ll use it to take people to get their food shopping today instead. A lot of people will stay in bed all day today to keep warm because they’re worried about electricity bills.”

School closures

A number of schools were closed on Monday, with some delaying start time but the Department of Education had on Sunday anticipated that most schools would "open as normal".

The decision to close a school "is a matter for individual school management authorities" around the country, as they are "best placed to do this" in light of local weather conditions.

Because school transport services may operate on rural or secondary roads, which may be untreated, this could "result in disruption" during adverse weather conditions.

If a school plans to close or where transport is affected, communications of such decisions will be issued locally between schools and parents or transport providers and parents.

The decision to close an early learning and childcare setting also rests with the setting's management, and higher education institutions will decide on the appropriate weather-related measures to take.

Outpatients appointments

In an update on Sunday evening, the HSE clarified that given hazardous conditions in Cork, Kerry, south Tipperary, Laois and parts of the mid-west, it has cancelled some services in those areas including outpatient appointments and day services on Monday.

It said that, where possible, its teams would make contact directly with those who use our day centre services in disability, mental health or older people to advise them of disruptions, or families can contact their local day service directly to get an update.

HSE CEO Bernard Gloster said: “Where we defer any service it will be rearranged or rescheduled as quickly as possible. We regret any impact this has on our patients and their families however we must do all we can to ensure the safety of those who use our services and our staff. Any cancellations over the coming days are limited to those areas where travel is difficult.

“It is important to say that we are doing all we can to ensure continuity of critical services including ambulance, ED, dialysis, oncology treatment and prenatal care for expectant mothers.

“We are also taking steps in affected counties to prioritise people living alone and who need home support or community healthcare visits. If you are in any doubt or worried please contact your service, however for the most part, if you haven’t heard from us your appointment or the service you attend is not impacted at this time.

“Finally, despite the extremely difficult conditions in some parts of the country, we would urge anyone requiring urgent emergency care to attend their local emergency department for treatment. As always, our emergency departments provide emergency care to patients 24/ 7.”

The HSE South West said that all non-urgent appointments such as outpatient appointments and other clinical appointments in Cork HSE services are cancelled for Monday.

All non-urgent appointments at CUH, South Infirmary Victoria Hospital; Mercy University Hospital; Bantry Hospital and Mallow Hospital will not go ahead.

The HSE said it will contact all patients with urgent appointments such as dialysis and chemotherapy to make arrangements, while staff will also be in touch to arrange a rescheduled appointment.

Cork University Maternity Hospital (CUMH) has confirmed that while all maternity appointments will proceed as scheduled on Monday, gynaecology appointments at both CUMH and the Lee Clinic are cancelled, and will be rescheduled.

- Additional reporting by PA