High winds which left thousands of homes without electricity or telephone connections at the weekend will ease today, according to Met Eireann.
Heavy rain will spread from the west early today, but will clear in many areas by the afternoon, said Ms Deirdre Lowe. Ms Lowe said the worst of the windy weather was over, but the week would remain unsettled.
Some 900 homes, mostly in the north and north west, were without electricity for between eight and 12 hours yesterday after storms caused damage to power lines. ESB repair workers spent all day trying to restore power.
One of the worst affected areas was Aranmore Island off the Donegal coast where some 200 houses had no power for up to 12 hours.
ESB repair crews were delayed for several hours in getting to the island because the ferry service was cancelled due to severe sea conditions.
Up to 4,000 subscribers on Achill Island, Co Mayo, were without telephone connections for about 16 hours over the weekend. Eircom repair crews were hampered from repairing a damaged disk on a mast due to the bad weather. Many ferry services were cancelled yesterday due to severe weather conditions on the Irish Sea.
Stena Line's sailings from Dun Laoghaire to Holyhead and Rosslare to Fishguard were cancelled.
Irish Ferries' three Swift Service sailings from Dublin to Holyhead were cancelled yesterday, and passengers were transferred to its cruise vessel.
An Irish Marine and Rescue helicopter was forced to abandon an emergency evacuation from a British-registered Spanish trawler off the Clare coast last night because of high winds and heavy seas.
Fenit lifeboat was dispatched to the vessel which was approximately 75 miles west of Loop Head after attempts to winch to safety a crewman suffering serious head injuries proved impossible because of the weather conditions.