'We could lose anything from €1k to €6k': Manager of Cork pub blasts 'unfair' planned power outage 

A restaurateur in a busy Cork town has said that a planned power outage could cost the business thousands of euro in losses.

“It’s very unfair — I think it’s ridiculous in the current climate we’re in for businesses,” said Pat McCrae, manager of the Spaniard Bar and Restaurant in Kinsale.

The planned outage, scheduled by the ESB for Saturday, November 16, will take effect from 9am to 5pm and will impact 649 customers in the Kinsale area.

“It’s a huge disruption,” Mr McCrae said. 

“We have bookings, a charity event, staff depending on their wages, everything — and we have to close down on a Saturday, the busiest day for us to make money.

“That evening we have a charity event for the Rainbow Club and the RNLI, where we were going to present cheques from the Celtic Steamers — we have people flying over for this — and now we’ll have to close until at least 6pm.

“These people have flights booked; they’re coming over from the UK, and it’s very sad that we have to stop all this because of the [ESB] works. It [the event] was supposed to happen at 4pm, and it’s going to be very hard to do that now.

“Once the power even comes back on, it’ll take a good hour until our taps are right, and that the kitchen will be ready.

“We’ve had three outages in the last seven weeks and it’s just ridiculous.

“Why can’t this be done on a Monday or a Tuesday, instead of a Saturday? 

“It’s not just us, it’s the local community, people with kids off on the weekend now will have no power, no wi-fi. Why can’t this be done during school hours? It’s bizarre, really. 

“These things could close a place down — we could lose anything from €1,000 to €6,000, depending on the night. 

“It’s very wrong.”

A spokesperson for ESB said that impacted customers in Kinsale were notified of the planned outage on October 30, in advance of disruption to their electricity supply.

“ESB Networks always endeavour to minimise the impact and duration of electricity disruptions and will occasionally undertake such work on weekend days based on feedback from both domestic and business customers,” the spokesperson said.

“For instance, this work has been scheduled to avoid impact on Monday-Friday businesses and we also purposely avoided the October bank holiday/jazz weekend.

“The outage will enable significant and necessary works to improve the resilience of the local network and eliminate safety hazards, including tying in new poles.

“Furthermore, concurrent work will also be completed on the day, which often requires a separate planned outage [for] the completion of significant SIRO broadband stringing works. This outage will facilitate a safer and more resilient electricity network in the area, as well as the rollout of high quality fibre broadband — as such, the works will bring long-term benefits to the community.

“We apologise in advance for the disruption to commercial and family life the outages may cause.”