Up to 3,000 customers, including many businesses, in the Tallaght area of south Dublin are still without phone lines after extensive damage was caused to Eircom cables yesterday.
Eircom has blamed a development company working in the area for the damage and is currently carrying out an investigation into the matter.
In a statement today, Eircom said work was "ongoing" to repair the damage. "Repair crews have been working continuously on site since yesterday afternoon and have now restored service to approximately 2,000 of the 5,000 customers affected."
"The nature and scale of the damage caused means that service is being restored to customers on a phased basis and Eircom expects to have full service restored to all customers by close of business tomorrow. Eircom is currently carrying out an investigation with the contractors to establish the exact cause of the damage."
Eircom urged all contractors to contact it on the 1901 number before commencing any construction work, in order to find out where underground cables are located. It apologised to customers for any inconvenience caused.
South Dublin Chamber of Commerce said a "significant number" of businesses in Tallaght had been brought to a halt in their nomal operations due to a JCB cutting through the main Eircom line. It said organisations in business parks such as Whitestown had lost their telephone lines, disabling telephone, fax, email and Internet access.
Mr Peter Byrne, chief executive of South Dublin Chamber of Commerce said: "It's a joke to be promoting Ireland as a centre of excellence when one person with a JCB can paralyse communications for several days for an entire business community."
"In Ireland we are now dealing with the loss of essential services such as water, electricity and telecommunications due to accidents on a regular basis.
"This is unacceptable in a country that promotes itself as a leading economy. Communications is the lifeblood of business and it cannot be cut off."
Mr Byrne said the best way for such situations to be addressed was for those who cause the losses to be made financially responsible for them.