Eir Blames Truck For Months-Long Telecom Breakdown That Left 88-Year-Old Woman Stranded After Fall

Monday, 16 June 2025 17:26

By Martin Osborne

In a statement issued to Kfm, the company said that a heavy goods vehicle caused “significant damage” to infrastructure, bringing down poles and cables.

Eir has blamed a third-party incident involving a high-load vehicle for a major fault in its telecommunications network - an outage that left an 88-year-old woman lying on the floor of her Athgarvan home for 12 hours after a fall.

In a statement issued to Kfm, the company said that a heavy goods vehicle caused “significant damage” to infrastructure, bringing down poles and cables.

The damage triggered a cascade of complications, including the loss of landline services in Athgarvan, where the woman lives independently.

The disruption began in April and is still unresolved nearly two months later.

Eir says repairs have required “extensive work,” including traffic management on a busy public road, the deployment of technical crews, and the replacement of critical equipment.

Restoration is now scheduled for completion this week.

On May 31, an 88-year-old woman - whose personal emergency alarm is linked to her landline - fell in her home. With her alarm system inoperable due to the outage, she was unable to call for help and remained on the floor for approximately 12 hours before help arrived.

Although the woman is a Vodafone customer, the company relies on Eir’s fixed-line infrastructure.

Vodafone has described the matter as “urgent” and has escalated the issue.

Kfm understands that the technical repairs require formal applications to Kildare County Council.

The council has been contacted for comment on the status of those works.