Annacotty

Saorvew – Freeview – RTE Digital TV in Ireland

Saorview is  RTÉ’s free to air digital terrestial television (DTT) service.
EU rules mean that the current analogue ( ariel based TV )  signals have to be turned  off in October 2012.
Saorview is a mixed language word – with Saor meaning Free . Pronounced Sair or Seer . (They couldn’t use the name Freeview – because that is in use in the UK and would confuse people.)
The equivalent digital TV service called Freeview – in the UK has been running since 2002.

The old UK channels using analogue signals were starting to get switched off in September 2011 – and many Irish residents who pick up BBC and ITV from Wales or Northern Ireland via an aerial will see those channels dissappear soon if they have not already done so.

The minority (340,000) of  households  in Ireland still use their TV ariel for watching TV  . The switch to digital TV will hardly affect the majority of the country’s consumers, who receive their TV from digital providers such as Sky (625,000) or UPC (375,000)

There will be 5 “new”  digital channels – RTÉ Two HD, RTÉ Aertel Digital, RTÉ jr, RTÉ One + 1 and RTÉ News Now.
In the UK – there are dozens of channels on their Freeview setup.

What Will You Need  to Buy ?

Set Top Box

The Digital TV  Saorview  signal can be received on all types of televisions from most aerials using a set-top box.
There are Saorview approved set top boxes – retailing at about €100. But any UK Freeview HD set top box will work.

Aerials

Some households may need to adjust or replace their aerial:  expect to pay about  €150.
Don’t be conned into paying for a new aerial if you don’t need one. If you currently can receive TV3 through your aerial then your aerial is most likely fine and is pointing in the right direction. You should not need to do anything with your aerial.

2. If you currently receive RTÉ One, RTÉ Two and TG4  through your aerial but do not receive TV3 then your aerial is most likely fine but for some homes it may be pointing in the wrong direction.

3. If you receive only RTÉ One and RTÉ Two through your aerial and do not receive TV3 and TG4 then you will probably need a new UHF aerial pointed at the best transmission site for your area.

Televisions

You don’t need a new TV – but If you are planning on buying a new TV – you should consider  a  television with Saorview built in or look for Freeview HD.
The 340,000 households that currently just view TV via an ariel – will be made up of a high proportion of elderly , rural dwellers and those on lower incomes.

Freeview televisions from the UK will not work with Saorview. But Freeview HD televisions should be able to pick up the Saorview signal.

Any  Television with an MPEG4 digital tuner should work. – Freeview HD uses MPEG4.

By October 2012 SAORVIEW should be accessible to 98% of the population.  Approximately 2% of the population will not be able to receive the SAORVIEW service.
RTÉ is currently in the process of also developing and testing a free-to-air satellite service, SAORSAT, which will make it possible for 100% of the population to access Irish free-to-air digital television channels and services. This will provide coverage to the homes not covered by SAORVIEW.

Annacotty – 4th Best Town in Ireland

Annacotty came fourth in our league table of the BEST towns in Ireland .
Our chart is based on census figures from 2006 and was compiled using statistics on Education, Housing, Lone Parents, IT, Unemployment . Only towns with populations over 1500 were included.At the 2006 census – the population of Annacotty was 1839 .The unemployment rate in Annacotty was just 2%- well below the national average in Ireland of 5.89%
In Annacotty – 8.53% of the workforce are unable to work because of disability or ill health – which is almost double the national average of 4.71% .

Most workers in Annacotty are are employed in professional or technical jobs (33.14% of the workforce).
Lone parents- make up only 8.27% of all households in Annacotty – this is under half of the national average which is 19.29%

Housing: Local Authority rented homes make up only 1.1% of the dwelling units in Annacotty the third lowest in the country and way below the average of 9.06% of Council houses.Rented homes in Annacotty make up 22.92% of all homes in the town – which is 20% below the national average of 28.1%.
Just 15.2% of houses in Annacotty are owned outright – with no mortgage outstanding – well below the average for Ireland as a whole which is 28%.

Central Heating is installed in 98.6% of all dwellings in Annacotty – which is higher than the national average of 89.8%.

Information Technology. : 73% of households own personal computers in Annacotty – compared to 53.3% nationally. Broadband connections were at 35% in Annacotty in 2006 about 75% above the national avearge which was a poor 20.18% .
37.665% of homes had no internet access at all in Annacotty – compared to the national average of 51%

Education : Annacotty residents are quite well educated – 13.3% of the people living in Annacotty – were only educated to primary school level or had no formal education at all. This is better than the national average of 16.72%. People with a third level degree or a higher qualification – make up 37% of the Annacotty workforce – which is more than double the national average of 16.57%.

Community involvement in Annacotty is average for the country – 15.4% of the over 15s said they carried out some sort of voluntary work.The percentage of people with a disability in Annacotty is above the national average of 9.8% at 12.9%.

See the list of best and worst locations in Ireland Here 

Top Ten Towns for Home Ownership

Owner Occupiers
In Ireland just over 28% of all housing is rented – either from Private landlords or local Authorities. Seventy two percent of homes ore owned. This is similar to 2004 figures from the UK of 30% of rented dwellings. According to figures from the Irish 2006 census – for towns with populations over 1500 – the town in Ireland with the largest percentage of homeowners is Portmarnock.
Portmarnock has 80.34% of housing units occupied by the owner.Top Ten towns for percentage of Home ownership in Ireland:
Portmarnock 80.33 %
Malahide 78.05
Enniskerry 77.71
Leixlip 76.1
Celbridge 75.86
Dunboyne 75.49
Ratoath 74.78
Donabate 74.12
Annacotty 73.07
Stamullen 72.39

Oranmore people best educated in Ireland?

 Oranmore has the best-educated residents in Ireland. Analysing figures from the 2006 census released yesterday – reveals that Oranmore in Co Galway has the highest percentage of graduates living there.
38.35% have a degree or higher and 53.3% of Oranmore residents who have completed their education – have a 3^rd level qualification. The next best educated town is Annacotty – with  52.66%  having completed third level and  37.17% obtaining a degree or higher.

Top Ten Best Educated Towns Overall:

Oranmore
Malahide
Annacotty
Ballina (North Tipperary)
Greystones
Maynooth
Donabate
Portmarnock
Kinsealy-Drinan
Sallins
Galway City

Biggest Broadband Uptake in Ireland

Malahide has the highest broadband uptake rate in Ireland.
The percentage of households in Malahide with broadband internet access is the highest of all large towns in Ireland – at 46.34%. Malahide also has the second highest rate of PC ownership – at 78.05% of households owning at least one personal computer. (Portmarnock is top at 80.33%).
Broadband uptake varies enourmously across Ireland – the two main factors influencing uptake would be availability and also economic status.
Portmarnock, Leixlip, Dunboyne, Celbridge, Greystones, Donabate, Skerries, Annacotty, Naas, Ratoath, Rathcoole and Maynooth all have broadband uptake of more than 33% of households.
The uptake figure nationally is 19.98%.
Some towns have a broadband uptake as low as 3.2% (Castlebridge).
Other towns with low broadband uptake are Clogherhead, Ballyjamesduff, Bunclody/Carrickduff, Stamullen , Kilcoole, Ballyhaunis – all with less than 10% of households with a broadband connection.

Central Heating Figures

Some of the housing in Irish towns is fairly old and basic. The census in 2006 asked people to indicate if their home had central heating – the results show that the town with the largest percentage of houses without central heating is Bantry in County Cork .
In Bantry 27.7% of homes do not have central heating installed – almost 3 times the average for Ireland.
Maybe the warmer weather in the South West means that people don’t need it. Skibereen has 26.7% of houses without central heating followed by Kilrush in Clare on 25.2%. Next is Clonakilty – also in Cork then Dingle and Dunmanway with 21.7%
The average for the whole of Ireland is just 9.31% of homes having no central heating.
The town with the largest proportion of it’s housing with central heating is Stamullen – where only 0.69% are lacking it.
The Top ten towns for having central heating are
1. Stamullen
2 Portmarnock
3 Annacotty
4 Ratoath
5 Newcastle
6 Malahide
7 Rathcoole
8 Leixlip
9 Kill
10 Lusk

Lowest Rate of Unemployment in Ireland

Annacotty has Lowest Unemployment Rate in Ireland:

The town of Annacotty had just 2% of the workforce classified as unemployed in the 2006 census. But only 67% of the total workforce are in work – which is not the highest in the country. Kinsealy – Drinan holds that position – with 78.82% of it’s possible workforce in employment.
Annacotty is in 17th place in the table of percentage in work. This discrepancy can be partly accounted for by the numbers of people in Annacotty who declared that they were unable to work because of ill health – 8.53% of the workforce. This compares to Kinsealy – Drinan’s 1.44 %. Of those in the workforce 33.14% are employed in Professional or Technical Jobs. This also means Annacotty has the highest percentage in Ireland of workers classified as Professional or Technical. The next town in the league of Profesional/Technical jobs is Maynooth – with 26.62% .
Other employment figures for Annacotty :
Employed in Farming 0.48%
Employed in Management 7.09%
Employed in Building 3.16%
Sales Jobs 13.7%
Clerical Jobs 19.63%
Annacotty also has the 3rd lowest percentage of lone parents in the country – 8.27%. (Stamullen and Newcastle have the lowest and second lowest respectively.)
Annacotty has the lowest percentage of lone fathers – at just 0.47% – compared to 5.1% for Portrane (the highest)

Lone Mothers in Carndonagh

Lone Mothers

Carndonagh in Donegal and  Tipperary and Cashel in Tipperary are the top 3 towns in Ireland for lone mothers. All these towns have just over 25% of household units headed by lone mothers. 
Longford, Dingle  Carrick on Suir , Enniscorthy and Castleblaney  are close behind – all with over 23% of lone mother households.
Ireland as a whole has 15.43% of lone mother households.

 The five towns with the lowest percentage of lone mothers are  Dunshaughlin (9.1%) , Ratoath (7.9%) , Annacotty (7.8%), Stamullen (6.6%)  and  Newcastle (6.3%) 

Figures from 2006 Census

Towns dependent on Construction

Construction Workers in Ireland

The building and construction sector accounts for 8.69% of all the employment in Ireland – according to responses in the 2006 Census.

Some towns depend much more on construction for jobs than others – and could be harder hit if the slowdown in house building continues.

Gort – in Galway has a massive 23% of it’s workforce employed in building – almost one quarter of all jobs in the town.

These are the top ten towns (with populations over 1500) for construction-based work.

Gort  23.27%

Kanturk   18.64%

Ballaghaderreen 17.95 %

Carndonagh  17.59%

Dunmanway 16.66 %

Killorglin   16.46%

Enniscorthy 15.4%

Carrick-on-Suir  15%

Duleek  14.95%

Athboy 14.8%

The town with the least people occupied in the building industry is  Annacotty – with just 3.16% of the workforce employed in the sector.

The towns of Malahide , Donabate , Portmarnock,  Kinsealy-Drinan and Shannon all had less than 5% of their workforce in the building trade.

All figures calculated from the 2006 Census – taken in May 2006