Accidental damage to cables causes phone and broadband headache for dozens of County Roscommon households

Scores of people in the Castlerea area could remain without broadband and landline phone services for at least another week following accidental damage to fibre and copper cables.

Eir has confirmed that approximately 60 customers in the Williamstown Road /Creggaslin/Cloondahara/Trien areas have been without broadband since last weekend.

The outage was caused after fibre and copper cables were accidentally damaged during upgrade works to the rail line outside Castlerea on Saturday night last.

Resolution and repair works to the cables are continuing, and it is hoped that the issue will be resolved by the end of next week, Eir told the Roscommon Herald.

“As part of the works, a new section of track was laid over the affected area,” a spokesperson for the company said. “Due to the nature and location of the damage, significant civil engineering works will be required to safely access and reinstate the infrastructure.” 

A spokesperson for Irish Rail said that unfortunately during line maintenance works last Saturday, accidental damage to Eir cabling was caused.

It said it is liaising with Eir to help restore services, and apologised to households affected for the inconvenience.