Street lights in Limerick city ‘out of use since start of this year’

SOME PUBLIC street lighting in the city has been out of commission since January, a councillor has said.

And another has claimed areas around Thomond Park were left pitch black after the Dermot Kennedy concerts.

It came as councillors at this month's full meeting demanded a better service from the ESB, which powers the street lights across Limerick. Enerveo is responsible for their maintenance.

Independent councillor Jerome Scanlan saw a resolution passed unanimously demanding a review to the service agreement between the electrical utility company and the local authority.

“People need light. They've been in the darkness for too long,” he said at this month's full council meeting.

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Sinn Fein councillor Sharon Benson seconded the resolution, pointing to issues on the northside, particularly after singer Dermot Kennedy sold out three gigs at the home of Munster Rugby. “In the Thomond Park area near the stadium we were in complete and utter darkness,” she claimed.

“The ESB's response was they would come after two weeks. It's not good enough.”

Labour councillor Conor Sheehan said some lights have been out all this year.

“I 100% support this motion. I've been trying to get street lights in dark corners repaired. I've been waiting for some since January. It reflects very poorly on us as local representatives. The public must think we are useless. It should not take seven months to get a street light fixed,” he said.

Councillor Sarah Kiely, Fine Gael, added: “It seems we all have a tale to tell around street lights here. It took the ESB four months to respond to a light out in O'Malley Park. It's costing the State a small fortune with man hours when all that is needed to be done is changing a light

“We want the ESB to come in and make a presentation to us. Its Service Level Agreement dictates a turnaround of 14 days [to repair a light], but they are not keeping to them. We don't know if it's them or the sub-contractor where the delay is.”

“The council should be paying someone to go out and fix these lights after hours,” added the City East member.

“It's a real bugbear of councillors and we do not seem to be making any progress. We need to get these lights fixed,” said Newcastle West council leader Tom Ruddle.

And Cllr Eddie Ryan, said: “Ten lights were off in a village near me. It's a real issue. We can definitely do better.”

In a written reply, the council executive senior executive engineer, Seamas O'Reilly, stated that early this month, of the 23,525 lights council manages, 225 had faults noted. “Of that, 102 faults require the attendance of the ESB in order to facilitate the installation of interfaces and to deal with faults on the network,” he wrote.

“We have escalated a number of cases to the ESB and are working closely with their engineers on the ground who have committed to facilitate us insofar as they can,” said Mr O'Reilly.