About 9,000 homes were yesterday without electricity for the third day as another round of strong winds battered the North. There has been growing criticism of how Northern Ireland Electricity has handled the crisis.
The Ulster Unionist MP, Mr Willie Thompson, has called on the Department of the Environment to set up an inquiry into the company's procedures.
Customers whose power has not been restored have complained about how difficult it is to contact NIE to report faults. Electricity supplies have been restored to some 40,000 houses since St Stephen's Day, but people in Craigavon, Co Armagh; Dungannon and Omagh in Co Tyrone; Newry, Bangor and Downpatrick in Co Down; Enniskillen, Co Fermanagh; and Lisburn, Ballyclare and Ballymena in Co Antrim, have not been so fortunate.
Northern Ireland's electricity industry regulator, Ofreg, criticised NIE for failing to provide customers with up-to-date information during the power cuts. It said that despite last year's experience, there was still an "inability" to supply a satisfactory information service. NIE is being asked to give Ofreg a detailed report on its response to recent events. The chairwoman of the Consumer Committee for Electricity, Ms Nuala O'Loan, described the situation as "very bad". NIE's automated emergency answering machine was not working for part of the crisis. Mr Thompson, the MP for West Tyrone, said: "It is simply unacceptable that users were left with an answering machine giving insufficient information."
An Assembly member for the area, Mr Eugene McMenamin, called for a public inquiry. "I find it very hard to believe that NIE cannot get things under control. This is the second Christmas in a row that thousands of householders have been without power." The Sinn Fein chairman, Mr Mitchel McLaughlin, said the experience showed the need for an energy supply other than electricity in the north-west.
NIE's managing director for customer service, Mr Collin Fallon, said the company's engineers had been working night and day in horrendous weather throughout the holiday to restore supplies. "They have worked round the clock in sleet, snow and freezing fog to restore the main backbone of the electricity system.
"Almost 41,000 homes have now been restored, and we are doing everything possible to restore the remaining 9,000 as quickly as possible." The gales abated on Sunday but bad weather returned yesterday, with experts predicting gusts of 70 m.p.h. over the next 24 hours. Further damage to trees and property is expected. Insurance companies have been inundated with calls from people seeking help to make claims.