Thousands left without power in wake of Storm Eunice

Cork and Kerry have been some of the worst areas hit so far but as the storm gathers pace in its march eastwards the ESB says others will be affected.

Siobhan Wynne from the ESB told Newstalk Breakfast: “At the moment we have about 6,500 customers without supply - they're mainly in the south of the country, parts of Cork and Kerry have been worst affected so far.

"I'm just conscious that we are still at the early stages of this storm, so we would expect there to be further impact now as the next couple of hours unfold."

She says they hope to restore supply as soon as conditions allow.

"All of our crews are mobilising at the moment, so at first light they will be out.

"We hope to restore power to those customers within the next few hours.

"It just depends now on how the storm develops in terms of the number of customers who may be affected over the course of the morning."

People can report downed power lines to the ESB on 1800-372-999, or check the status of an outage on powercheck.ie

Matthew Martin from Met Éireann also warned that while it is still calm in some areas, this will change.

"Whilst conditions haven't been too bad overnight, they're going to quickly deteriorate now across west Kerry and west Cork.

"We're going to see very strong, significant winds extend eastwards across the country during the morning.

"Whilst you might be waking up thinking 'It's not all too bad', things are going to deteriorate through the morning."

He says the winds will affect Cork and Kerry between 8am and 9am - while the east coast will feel the impact of those winds from 9 or 10am.

"There'll be a sudden increase in wind speeds around that time", he says.

However he says blizzard warnings in the north-west will "probably be downgraded to a yellow status" as the day goes on.

And Anna Cullen from AA Roadwatch advised road user to slow down.

“If you are in a red area, the advice really is to not travel at all,” she added.

"But if you do need to travel: slow down, allow extra stopping distance... adapt your driving to the weather conditions, so be on the look out for vulnerable road users.

"And if you haven't left already this morning, just allow an extra 15 minutes on to your normal commute."