Wexford telephone poles ‘hanging by a wire’ amid fears elderly will ‘have no way of contacting their families’

By Simon Bourke, Wexford People

Elderly people in rural south Wexford face will be cut off from society unless a telecommunications company repairs poles which have been “hanging by the wire” all year. The poles, located in Scar, Slevoy, and Clover Valley, are the responsibility of Eir but, at the October meeting of the Rosslare Municipal District (RMD), Councillor Jim Codd asked if anyone within the county council could step in on his behalf.

“It’s amazing those poles have managed to survive the year, but the first big storm will take them down and then we’ll have power outages across the district, could we contact Eir about this?” he asked. “The pole in Scar is so bad it’s a wonder someone hasn’t come along and cut it for blocks at this stage.”

Area engineer Michael Brazzill said that, when it came to contacting Eir, he was in the same boat as the councillors.

“It’s very difficult to get through to them,” he admitted.

“I appreciate how hamstrung you are dealing with some of these organisations, but come the storms those telephone poles will blow down and elderly people will have no way of contacting their families,” continued Cllr Codd. “Can you send a letter to Eir expressing our annoyance?”

Confirming that he was scheduled to meet with Eir, Mr Brazzill said he would also be asking why the company’s staff replaced a pole that “was in the centre of a footpath with a brand new one in the same place”.