Thousands of people in pockets of the country remain displaced with no power or water - 11 days on from Storm Éowyn.
ESB Networks said approximately 25,000 homes, farms, schools and businesses remain without power.
Fewer than 400 premises are without water, according to the National Emergency Co-ordination Group's latest update.
Restoration works are continuing with the help of crews from Austria, Finland, France, the UK, Germany, Netherlands and Norway, who are on the ground in the worst impacted areas.
Power restoration to schools is a key priority for ESB Networks, according to Regional Manager with ESB Networks Siobhán Wynne.
Speaking on RTÉ's News at One, Ms Wynne said the number of schools still without power should be significantly smaller by tomorrow.
She said "about 150 schools" were impacted, adding the "figure has greatly reduced this morning".
ESB Networks, she said, is "looking to restore supply to them or to deploy generators".
"We are hopeful that as of tomorrow morning, it will only be a small number of schools that will be impacted," she said.
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Ms Wynne added that it is difficult to give an estimate as to when all affected customers will have their electricity supply restored.
However, she said it is her expectation the majority would be back by the middle of the week.
"In the coming days after that, we will restore power to the remaining customers by the end of this week," she added
The worst remaining impacted areas are Sligo, Galway, Mayo, Leitrim, Donegal, Cavan, Monaghan, Longford and Roscommon, she said.
Separately, electricity supplier NIE Networks said fewer than 1,000 people are now without power across Northern Ireland, most of them in Co Fermanagh.
The company said all should be back on supply tonight, completing restoration to 285,000 customers who were off supply at the height of Storm Éowyn.
Speaking on RTÉ's Morning Ireland, CEO of Irish Rural Link Seamus Boland said that lessons have to be learned from the aftermath of the storm.
"I don’t think there was much talk about the aftermath in any part of the advice. I think it was only afterwards that communities really got organised. All the mobile phones were out, so there was a whole lot of unexpected consequences that people had to try and organise themselves afterwards for," he said.
"People would not have had so much help if the voluntary sector were not so active. We need to really ask questions. There's a lot of heroes out there, including the ESB and local authority staff who have really worked non-stop over the last two weeks.
"But we have to ask questions, were we really prepared enough and did we do enough in the aftermath?"
"I think we have been rather slow, and we have allowed a situation where people are still suffering. People are still out of power and struggling to maintain daily activities," he added.
Mr Boland questioned whether lessons would be learned from the fallout of Storm Éowyn.
"We really were caught off guard and surprised. I think we have to learn a bit more."
Communities coming together
Counties in the northwest of the country are among the worst impacted.
In the village of Geevagh in Co Sligo, the local GAA club has opened its doors to allow people to shower, eat and work remotely.
"We live up the road here, I have my elderly parents with me. We have no power, no heat, nothing. It’s been tough," said Olive Mullaney, a local resident.
"Myself and Dad both have colds now, due to the cold and having no heat. I’m doing a college course, and I can't plug in my laptop either. It's impacting that too," she said.
Government response questioned
Local Fianna Fáil councillor Liam Brennan said he believes the Government response could have been better.
"As local government, we've been there, we've been taking the calls, we’ve been trying to direct the services to the areas that need it. Local government definitely has stepped up to the mark here and tried to do as much as possible," he said.
"We now need to go to our Government ministers and advocate to try and get this area looked after," he added.
It is estimated that it could be the end of the week before power is fully restored to the outstanding affected customers.
Additional reporting Vincent Kearney
