Public lighting outages reach ‘emergency status’

Councillors say public lighting failures in housing estates are putting residents at risk as winter approaches. Cllr Ken Glynn said estates in Mullingar have been left in darkness for up to 11 months. “We’re now nearly at emergency status in relation to the level that are out,” he told the September meeting of the Mullingar Kinnegad Municipal District. “We’re coming into the dark evenings and I’m inundated with people contacting me.”

Cllr Emily Wallace said estates unlit last winter face the same problem again.

Director of services Deirdre Reilly acknowledged the seriousness of the issue and suggested inviting the council’s public lighting engineer to the next meeting. Senior engineer Pat Kavanagh said that when new footpaths are laid, ducting for lighting is always included to speed up future repairs.