Bad weather is causing travel disruptions for hundreds of people coming home for Christmas.

Freezing temperatures and heavy rains are expected overnight, while Met Eireann has issued a gale warning- of strong or southerly gales across all Irish coastal waters and the Irish sea.

A number of ferry crossings have been cancelled for the next few days.

All of tomorrow's scheduled sailings from Pembroke to Rosslare have been cancelled, while the service from Holyhead to Dublin has also been affected.

Passengers are being advised to check the Irish ferries website before going to the port.

Dermot Merrigan is from Irish Ferries.

Meanwhile, the stormy conditions have also caused widespread power outages and disruption to phone and broadband services.

The ESB says that electricity service has now returned to normal levels, with just 300 customers without power.

Meanwhile, five and a half thousand Eircom customers are currently without phone and broadband services this evening.

Paul Bradley from Eircom says crews are working to restore services to all customers.