A number of homes and businesses in the Quay area of Dundalk are without power this morning.
This is due to a fault in the Coes Road area. ESB Networks have confirmed that they have a crew on site and hope to have the problem dealt with quickly.
Problems have also been reported in Hackballscross and Inniskeen.
Niamh Shaw, right, pictured at the launch of the Engineer’s Ireland Excellence Awards with ESB chief executive Pat O’Doherty and John Power, director general of Engineer’s Ireland
Dundalk woman Niamh Shaw will be hosting this year’s Engineer’s Ireland Excellence Awards, which will take place in the Four Seasons Hotel in Ballsbridge in Dublin on Friday November 7th.
The awards, in conjunction with the ESB, have been running since 2010 with aspiring astronaut and engineer Niamh set to act as MC at the event.
Entries are now open with further details available here.
ESB and Vodafone today announced a new joint venture which will see them invest €450m in building a 100% fibre broadband network across Ireland.
The new network will offer speeds of 200mpbs to 1,000mpbs, propelling Ireland into the ranks of the world’s fastest broadband countries.
Dundalk and Drogheda are amongst 50 towns set to benefit from the new roll out first of all, with 500,000 premises across the country set to benefit initially.
Roll-out is expected to take place in the coming months subject to European Commission approval, with the first customers set to avail of the new high speeds from the start of next year.
The fibre will be deployed on ESB’s existing overhead and underground infrastructure, ensuring a fast and cost efficient roll-out to every county in Ireland and reversing the digital divide between the capital and regional towns.
Unfortunately it won’t be available in towns with less than 4,000 premises so rural areas are unlikely to benefit.
At the launch it was revealed that 43% of broadband in Ireland today has speeds of less than 10mbps. At present the fastest broadband available in Dundalk is Eircom’s efibre, which only operates at “up to” 100mpbs – something few actually ever experience.
Naomh Fionnbarra GFC are hoping to relocate their pitch and build a 580 metre long running track around it.
The club have applied to Louth County Council for planning permission for the development at their pitch at Ballynagassan, Dunleer, Co Louth.
They are proposing to relocate their existing pitch and erect 14 metre high ball stops behind each goal posts and increase the existing training area at the southern end of the pitch.
They also want to erect four 18m high floodlighting columns around the proposed new training area and provide a 580 metre long running track around both the pitch and training area.
They would also want to divert a 10kv ESB overhead power line and incorporate a pedestrian gate into the existing front vehicular gate as part of their plans.
In this week’s Argus, Anne Campbell leads with the story Talk of the Town brought you yesterday about students voting against plans for a velodrome at the JJB facility. There’s also an interview with Brendan Ogle on his decision to leave the ESB last week, coverage of the opening of the new children’s respite centre in Lordship last Friday and news of an animal rights charity’s call to boycott Tom Duffy’s Circus, which is in Dundalk this week.
All that and more in this week’s Argus… on sale now!
Brendan Ogle
Respected union boss Brendan Ogle, the Secretary of the ESB Group of Unions, is leaving ESB and his position as Group Secretary.
Mr Ogle, who hails from Marian Park in Dundalk, represented staff in ESB for nearly ten years, initially as a regional organiser for Unite and more recently as Secretary of the ESB Group of Unions.
In a statement, Mr Ogle said the decision was initiated by him and was made by mutual consent.
He said the group of unions’ recent successful campaign to have the ESB pension scheme reclassified and treated as a defined benefit pension scheme allows him to leave the company “at an appropriate time”.
In December he received death threats when a union issue led to fears of a black-out around the country over the Christmas period.
Brendan first came to prominence during the rail strike in the summer of 2000 when he led a small breakaway union, ILDA (Irish Locomotive Drivers’ Association) – many of whose members were based at Clarke Station in Dundalk.
In a statement, the ESB said it wished Mr Ogle well in his future endeavours.
“While 2013 was a difficult period for industrial relations in ESB and in turn for customers, ESB acknowledges that over the period of his involvement with ESB as a union official and as Secretary of the ESB Group of Unions, Mr Ogle made a significant contribution, particularly through the delivery and implementation of a number of important change agreements,” the company added.
Dundalk Port at around 12.50pm today, as captured by local councillor Mark Dearey
A number of homes have been left without power in the Bush area of Cooley this morning.
The outage occurred around 11.20am, with the ESB currently working on the fault. There is no estimate on when power will be reconnected but 272 homes are said to be affected.
Meanwhile, flooding has already occurred at Dundalk Port, with water above the sea wall. There is already flooding reported on the Inner Relief Road and at the Fairgreen Road, which has been closed.
Brendan Ogle
ESB union boss Brendan Ogle confirmed yesterday that he received death threats during the recent dispute with the ESB, which threatened to result in black-outs around the country from next Monday.
Threats of a “serious nature” were also made against his family, Mr Ogle told Sean O’Rourke on RTÉ Radio yesterday.
Ogle, who hails from Marian Park in Dundalk, said the threats were taken seriously and were a factor as to why negotiations between the ESB and the unions took place at undisclosed locations. A deal was struck between the ESB and unions on Sunday, preventing the possibility of industrial action next week.
“Unfortunately people have been whipped up by this. Threats of a serious nature have been made against me and my family and these are being investigated by the gardai and I don’t want to say much more about it,” he told Sean O’Rourke.
When the broadcaster asked if it was a threat to his life, he replied “yes”.
The unions boss said the threats were made a week ago and that gardai were treating them seriously.
He also said the death threats were “a factor” in the talks between the ESB and union officials taking place at undisclosed locations.
Power has now been restored to much of Dundalk, following an outage this morning.
ESB Networks have been working on the problem, which affected pockets of the town, since early today but solved the problem around 12.30pm.
They have asked anyone who is still without electricity to contact them at 1850372999.
This is the latest in a series of outages in the area recently, with a similar outage affecting most of the Inner Relief Road, Dublin Road and Muirhevnamor area of the town last month, not to mention Blackrock and Haggardstown
A LOCAL woman, who failed to turn up in court yesterday, was jailed for six months in her absence for stealing electricity by tampering with an ESB meter at her former residence in Co Monaghan.
Maggie Fitzpatrick of Avondale Park, Dundalk, was charged with the theft of a supply of electricity at a dwelling where she previously resided at Cois Locha, Doohamlet, Co Monaghan, on February 13th last.
Peter McCarthy, an ESB official, told Judge Seán MacBride at Carrickmacross District Court that he detected the offence and discovered that an object had been driven into the meter at the house to prevent full usage of the electricity supply being recorded. He estimated that the total amount due to the ESB from the illegal draw-off was €1,437.19.
The ESB said the damage caused to the meter, which had to be replaced, was €192.
The accused was not present or represented in court and the judge imposed the jail sentence in her absence.
Talk of the Town 