Kilkenny communities left living in 'anxiety' and 'frustration'

Cathaoirleach of Kilkenny County Council, Michael McCarthy has described the lack of response from the ESB to lighting outages in parts of North Kilkenny as 'mind boggling'.

Last December, a number of areas were left without public lighting.

The outage in Johnstown was the first notified to Kilkenny County Council and subsequently to the relevant contractor.

On December 13, ESB were made aware of the matter but ‘incredibly’ according to Cllr McCarthy, lighting was not restored until February 28 of this year.

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Lighting outages were also reported in Freshford, Goresbridge and in a number of other locations across North Kilkenny.

It was noted that the area was hit by two storms during that period.

"I wish to make it clear my intentions are not to have a go at the ESB but by any stretch of the imagination that delay was extraordinary and mind boggling," Cllr McCarthy commented.

"Some of that time it was deemed not safe for contractors to go out by the ESB. However, that was not the case every day and it’s extremely hard to explain to my constituents in Freshford and Goresbridge who were left in the dark when a simple piece of new equipment was all that was required," he added.

The Fianna Fáil councillor claimed the issue had left 'anxiety' and 'frustration' amongst people living in the communities.

The Freshford native also expressed dissatisfaction at the ESB’s failure to reply to correspondence from Kilkenny County Council.

Meanwhile, last month, an investment of €50,000 in public lighting was granted for a range of communities across the northern part of the county, including Paulstown and Muckalee.

Speaking at the most recent sitting of the Castlecomer Municipal District, Cllr Mary Hilda Cavanagh described visiting impacted communities as 'scary', adding, "people were totally let down by ESB networks but the councillors tended to get the blame," she claimed.

"I know the executive were involved but there was just no answer," she added.

"It’s not good enough," she said, adding, "it’s the sheer length of time, it’s just not good enough."

Cllr Pat Fitzpatrick requested they write to the CEO of ESB Networks to express their 'disappointment' and 'frustration'.

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