‘Great to see’ - Update issued on new initiative as Carlow prepares for future storms

An update has been issued on plans for a new initiative in County Carlow as preparations are made for future storms.

Community support centres are being established across the county so that communities can be provided with a generator in the case of a power outage.

Barry Knowles, Senior Executive Officer at Carlow County Council, spoke on the subject at the January meeting of the Carlow Municipal District.

Mr Knowles said: “The community support centres have come in from Storm Éowyn in 2025 where there was a huge amount of electricity blackouts throughout the country.

“We saw that there was a big issue in relation to power and there were some properties without power for 14 days.

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“Carlow County Council were requested by the National Directorate for Fire and Emergency Management to lead out on the procurement of the community support centres initiative for the whole of Ireland.”

He gave credit to Ben Woodhouse of Carlow Fire Service for his involvement in the initiative from its early stages.

He went on to outline the selection process for the locations of these community support centres.

“So we looked at nine locations throughout the county. These nine locations are very well spread out through the county of Carlow, looking at its geography.

“The three locations we have within Carlow Municipal District are Éire Óg GAA, O’Hanrahans GAA and St Fiacc’s Community Centre.

“On the back of that then, we have to get the centres surveyed by an electrical contractor just to see what it would entail to connect the generator to the building.”

Mr Knowles continued by highlighting the work that has been done thus far and the locations where there is still work to do.

“The surveys have been completed now and electrical works have started. In the Carlow Municipal District, the electrical works have been completed at O’Hanrahans GAA and St. Fiacc’s Community Centre.

“They are up and running now as community support centres but Éire Óg still has to be done. Across the county, we have six locations completed.”

He concluded by reiterating how these centres will operate in the event of a storm.

“What the whole idea of this is that Carlow County Council is procuring four generators. These generators will be positioned on a trailer.

“They’ll be located with the fire service and the generators are brought out to the Community Support Centre and that will provide power if that area is in a blackout. That’s the general use of the Community Support Centre.”

He added that there is funding available to cover any costs associated with the running of the community support centres.

Following the presentation, People Before Profit-Solidarity councillor Adrienne Wallace welcomed the progress that has been made.

Cllr Wallace said: “In fairness, there’s a lot of work going on there and I think it’s obviously very timely to have these support centres up and running now, particularly with Storm Chandra after hitting.

“So that’s great to see, that it’s forward planning and it’s just about getting the information out there and just saturating it so, particularly vulnerable people are aware that it’s going to be there.”

As detailed by Mr Knowles, the concept of community support centres was drawn up in the aftermath of Storm Éowyn, which hit Ireland last February.

The storm caused unprecedented damage to national electrical infrastructure, with over 768,000 premises losing power across the country.