Power cut closes West Clare restaurant

KILRUSH restaurateur Rory Fay, who runs the Harbour Restaurant in the town, had to temporarily close his business this week when an electricity pole was damaged in a storm on Sunday night. The pole was on the roadside close to the restaurant, next to Kilrush Marina on the Cappa Road.

“It was resting at a 45 degree angle over the road, so that blocked the road. The council immediately put up bollards blocking the road. Traffic then was pretty limited. People seeing the road block weren’t coming down,” he explained.
The restaurant was closed until Thursday. The electricity supply was cut off for a number of hours on Tuesday afternoon while the pole was being repaired. This resulted in some refrigerated food going off.
“The power was cut off on Tuesday. I wasn’t given any notice and I had to find out myself. I did notify the guys outside that there was refrigeration inside the restaurant and that if they were going to do a job it would want to be quick. But I lost a majority of my perishable stock,” Mr Fay explained.
“Electricity was out for over five hours. The problem is with the food hygiene regulations you have to maintain consistent temperatures in refrigeration.
“I communicated on Tuesday with my environmental health officer and she agreed that safety first always. I was hoping that the power would be out a minimum time but by 4.30pm on Tuesday the temperature had exceeded critical limits and there was no going back,” he added.
Speaking on Wednesday, Mr Fay said he was unable, at that point, to estimate how much money the incident cost him.
“I wasn’t too concerned about Monday and Tuesday. I was more concerned about Wednesday. Wednesday is market day in Kilrush and I missed that. The staff are not getting work either and the insurance company said to me they’re not going to cover me. It’s to do with the ESB having to turning off the power and that it wasn’t a freak of nature,” he said.