Around 26,000 homes, farms and businesses across Ireland are without power following Storm Emma, ESB Networks have revealed.

The utility said at the storm's peak, 101,000 homes, farms and businesses were without power at 1.30am this morning, Friday 02 March.

ESB said as a result of current weather conditions, it is unlikely power will be restored to all of its customers today. The main areas affected are parts of Carrigaline, Kilmoney, Trabolgan, Aghada and Kinsale in the south of the country and  Swords , Lusk, Skerries, Navan, Julianstown, Rathcoole, Duleek, Drybridge, Dunsandle, Allenwood, Prosperous and Saggart in the east.

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"As of 12:20 pm, there are 350 faults affecting 26,000 homes and business who are without electricity, predominantly in the east of the country and Co Cork," the firm said.

"In the normal course of events, this would be a very manageable number of faults for ESB Networks to deal with, but access issues due to snow and ice are hugely hampering our efforts to restore electricity supplies.

"We understand how difficult it is to not have electricity in these conditions and so our staff are focussed on trying to restore supply to as many people as possible as quickly as possible.  There are deep snow drifts in various parts of the country and so it is taking our crews a very long time to travel to each fault. It is also more difficult than normal to then carry out a repair."

"We will continue to work with the emergency services and Local Authorities to ensure the safety of the pubic and to minimise disruption and are seeking assistance from other state agencies to help us with access. However, it is unlikely that we will be able to restore supply to all customers today as a result of the conditions."

(LM/MH)