Ferry passengers who were forced to extend Christmas holidays because of severe weather were able to travel yesterday. Others will return to Britain today following the resumption of services.
Parts of the country had snow yesterday but conditions improved enough for travel services to return to normal. Power was restored to the remaining households cut off during the weekend storms.
Yesterday, snow fell in parts of the south, south-east, west and north-west, leading to icy road conditions in some areas.
Although it began to thaw later, the AA warned that roads could still be icy this morning following an overnight frost and there could be icy patches.
AA Roadwatch said yesterday that the road between Kilkenny and Clonmel was blocked with snow at Nine Mile House. Two trucks jack-knifed in the area, causing long traffic jams but it was cleared later in the day.
On the Cork/Dublin Road, conditions were bad north of Cashel, resulting in some minor accidents.
Tipperary town and its outskirts had some of the heaviest snow, with snow lingering on back roads.
Cos Roscommon and Leitrim also experienced sudden cold conditions, with freezing fog yesterday morning.
In Co Cork, the heaviest snowfall was in Mallow, and in Co Limerick there was a lot of surface water.
There was continuing frost in Galway and around Loughrea, Headford and Tuam.
Kilkenny, Limerick and Westmeath county councils reported that some areas had snowfalls but most roads were passable as they had been gritted and salted. All spokesmen expected overnight frost to result in icy conditions this morning.
A Met Eireann spokesman said it did not expect any extreme weather over the next few days. Today would be milder, with rain spreading to all parts. While tomorrow would be colder, there would be sunshine and showers.
On Thursday, Friday and probably into the weekend, it would be a good deal milder. Although it would still be windy and with heavy rainfalls, it would be nowhere near the extreme conditions of last weekend, he said.
A spokesman for Irish Ferries said services were operating normally and that was expected to continue. There could be a buildup this morning of passengers who had extended their stay because of the weather conditions.
He said the Dublin to Holyhead service had actually been operating throughout the weekend but it was not running on schedule and this caused long delays. The company lost only two sailings so passengers were subject to delays rather than cancellations.
The first Rosslare/Pembroke ferry sailed yesterday morning. That route had been closed since Friday. He said that there was room for 2,000 passengers on the Dublin route and 1,700 on the Rosslare route so he did not expect too many problems even if there was a build-up today.
A spokesman for Stena Line said all services were back to normal yesterday. There had been no sailings since Friday on the Dun Laoghaire to Holyhead or the Rosslare to Fishguard routes. The first ferry from Dun Laoghaire went out yesterday morning and there were four sailings during the day.
He said people who were booked for Saturday went out last night and those booked for Sunday were going out today. He hoped that stand-by passengers could also be accommodated.
Swansea Cork Ferries will operate a "double sailing schedule" between Swansea and Cork for the next two days to clear the backlog, a company spokesman said.
At airports, flight schedules returned to normal. An Aer Rianta spokesman said everything was operating as usual at all airports. Passengers had been subjected to delays of one or two hours over the weekend.
The ESB restored power to Bere Island and Long Island, both off Co Cork, yesterday. One consumer on Bere Island and 20 on Long Island had been without power since last weekend's storms.
A spokesman for the ESB said that the crews had been unable to get to the islands previously because of rough seas. They restored power to Sherkin Island, also off Co Cork, on Sunday.
More than 100 staff had been on stand-by at the weekend after the weather warnings.