Slow progress on long-awaited works on electricity cables in Laois town

The need to underground overhead electricity cables in Portarlington has been raised yet again by a local councillor.

At the recent meeting of the Gariguecullen/Portarlington MD, Councillor Aidan Mullins sought an update from Laois County Council on the undergrounding of overhead cables on French Church Street in Portarlington.

Cllr Mullins has long pursued the issue in order to improve the appearance of the street in Portarlington.

He first raised the motion in March 2024 and at that time Laois County Council said a survey would be carried out to scope the works and a cost estimate would then be prepared.

However, no works appeared to progress by the end of that year when Cllr Mullins sought a further update.

In December 2024, Laois County Council told Cllr Mullins that a cost estimate had been prepared and the works could progress subject to available resources.

Again, as Cllr Mullins said, “nothing happened.”

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He then returned to Laois County Council in October 2025 where he was told the works would be assessed.

The latest update from the council is that Road Design did meet with the ESB on the site and the proposed works were assessed.

The ESB said they would revert with costings for the work, but as it stands there have been no further updates from them.

Welcoming some progress on the works, Cllr Mullins said: “At least today, I can see some progress where the ESB have assessed the works and come up with the costings.

“I know it’s probably going to be a challenge to try and include it in the budget but at least we get to the stage where we know what the work will cost and how we are going to approach it for the final phase.”

Funded by the Local Democracy Reporting Scheme