Is Ireland a third world country?

I've just been without power again for 21 hours. We had some thunderstorms yesterday, but nothing dramatically bad. Power went off at 3pm. A lot of areas were without power, but in my immediate area only myself and my neighbour were affected.I tried to report the fault but gave up after several attempts and being on hold for 16 minutes. Finally got through today and they had no idea that there was a local fault. This fault has happened several times before - apparently a fuse on a nearby pole. Quickly fixed once the guy came.
Sitting in front of the fire last night, surrounded by candles and partaking in some rather nice red wine, I found myself thinking about whether the ESB (Irish electric company) is fit for purpose. Last winter was admittedly an exceptionally bad one for storms, but I lost count of the number of times my power was out. In Far Eastern countries I have been to they have much more dramatic thunder and lightening, yet I have never yet seen the power affected. (Although I'm sure that sometimes it must be.) I also had a recent week in Mallorca where there were torrential thunderstorms on most of the days I was there, yet the power stayed on.
So I'm wondering why this Emerald Isle is apparently so inept at maintaining a good electricity supply, when thunderstorms are not out of the ordinary. This fuse is obviously a problem point, so why can't they rectify it?

Re: Is Ireland a third world country?

I would say that lack of money invested in infrastructure is an issue. Ireland was badly hit by the recession. Cutbacks were savage to say the least, maybe these issues are partly the result.

Things can only get better as the country comes out of recession hopefully but a lot of people have had to face a very uncertain future.

Money for public services has been slashed.

There are problems with water in some places, it is not fit for consumption without boiling at the very least but most people buy bottled water, yes this is what you see in very poor countries and again a result of no investment.
The actual politics of the why and why not etc could keep us posting all day I'm sure.

Re: Is Ireland a third world country?

I wouldn't call Ireland a third world country wasn't it booming before the GFC? Sounds to me like it is just the lack of proper maintenance.

NSW has the opposite problem the power companies are accused of 'gold plating' the poles and wires by upgrading them to a too high a standard and causing higher electricity prices than was necessary. Because I live in an older suburb I am supplied via overhead power but the longest outage I have ever had was about 4hours quite recently when they replaced 3 poles in my street.

Even when a substation/transformer caught fire at the end of my street the outage was only about 45 minutes before they rerouted power.

Re: Is Ireland a third world country?

To be fair, my reference to being a third world country was rather tongue in cheek.
Yes, we were hit badly by the recession, but prior to that there was huge investment in infrastructure, although perhaps not electricity. Jem might know better than me on that.
And Bruce, your situation is not comparable to the rural area where I live. I wonder if more isolated areas in Aus have this problem?

Re: Is Ireland a third world country?

After bushfires they certainly do because the poles burn but I don't live in a city, I actually live in a semi rural area, Wollongong is the nearby town. Look at the pictures we don't even have footpaths.

The nearest power generation is 100s of km away either the Snowy hydro or the Central Coast coal fields the other side of Sydney but no one would tolerate 21 hours out of power unless there was a bush fire or a natural disaster eg the recent Blue Mountains fire (and that is more urban than where I live)

Your 'rural' areas are not really far from anywhere lets face it. Wollongong is a 20 minute drive on an expressway from me.

Re: Is Ireland a third world country?

I would suggest Orangutan you write to your company that supplies the electricity. As far as I know they have to reply to a letter if not a telephone
call.
You need to state in a polite way what you have told us here and put how many times it has happened etc. Also when you try to report it you cant
get through on the phone. Then wait and see what their reply is.
If it is the one pole for two houses maybe it needs looking at better than
just a repair.
Would be worth a stamp to know I think??

Re: Is Ireland a third world country?

Parts of England are like a third world country too .
I was happily washing my hair in the shower this morning when the electricity went off. It was off just long enough for me to get out of the shower and rinse the shampoo away in the basin
What caused the power failure , a bit of a thunders storm .
We are at the mercy of the weather here and passing squirrels who climb the electricity poles (which are covered in ivy) and make everything go off with a bang

I dread the snow, one year the power was off for 4 days.
I have become adept at cooking on a camping ring and can even make drop scones on there

This situation is just part of the joys of countryside living

Re: Is Ireland a third world country?

But the difference is there are quite a number of households around you, going by the pictures. Houses here are more isolated than that. You don't have footpaths, we don't have streets!

Re: Is Ireland a third world country?

Yes, I've been thinking about doing that.

Re: Is Ireland a third world country?

I would imagine the problem for Ania is the same as it is for many here living in the countryside, overland cables open to the elements.
An electricity repair man told me the only answer is to put all the cables underground but that would be too costly to do for the sake of small villages and isolated houses.
The same goes for broadband connections.