People living in  some unfinished housing estates will be given a waiver  from the Household Charge which came into effect on Jan 1st 2012.
This is the full  list of unfinished housing estates In County Roscommon Carlow that are given a waiver from the Household Charge.

NB-  Owners are still expected to register for the household charge and them claim the waiver. (No payment )

Read more about Household Charge Exemptions Here
Abbeyfield Sligo Road Ballaghaderreen

Abbeyville Court Galway Road Roscommon

Ashburton Grove Boherbui Road Ballaghaderreen

Ashfort Jamestown Road Croghan

Baile Na Mona Ballinlough Ballinlough

Breedouge Clooncany Breedogue

Canal view Canal Road Boyle

Castlemaine Ballymoe Road Roscommon

Chestnut Grove Strokestown Road Tulsk

Creavy Main Street Lisacul

Cuilmore Cove Knocknacarrow Cootehall

Cushla Village Monksland Athlone

Dun Ard Knockcroghery Knockcroghery

Forest Park Manor Old Carrick Road Boyle

Fortlands Sligo Road Ballaghaderreen

Foxwood Manor Warren Road Boyle

Greenfields Lanesboro Road Roscommon

Hazelfort Park Loughlynn Road Lisacul

Hazelwood Avenue Strokestown Road Elphin

Key West Kilmactranny Kilmactranny

Lisacul Manor Loughlynn Road Lisacul

Meadowbrook Strokestown Road Tulsk

Mill Stream Wind Mill Road Elphin

Mockmoyne Heights Green Street Boyle

Oakport Cootehall Cootehall

Oakwood Athlone Road Roscommon

Oldwood Ard Sallagh Beg Roscommon

Orchard Grove Hillstreet Road Elphin

Pairc Caislean Ballinasloe Road Ballyforan

Plan Ref 001728 Boyle Road Frenchpark

Plan Ref 00276 Farm Road Ballinlough

Plan Ref 00472 (Corraun Village) Ballymoe Road Roscommon

Plan Ref 041768 Boyle Road Frenchpark

Plan Ref 041940 Dublin Road Ballinagare

Plan Ref 042080 Ballintober Ballintober

Plan Ref 042481 (Main Street Flats) Dublin Rd Ballinagare

Plan Ref 042621, 042270 (Farnbeg) Dublin Road Strokestown

Plan Ref 04603 Circular Road Ballaghaderreen

Quay West Cooladye Cootehall

River oaks Kilcolman Ballaghaderreen

Roscommon Court Castle street Roscommon

Rosshill Galway Road Roscommon

Shancloon Castlerea Road Ballinagare

Shannon Valley Sligo Road Ballaghaderreen

Shannon Woods Tarmonbarry Tarmonbarry

Silveroe Frenchpark Road Boyle

Springvale Galway Road Cloonfad

Tarmon Manor Tarmon Castlerea

The Granary Charlestown Road Ballaghaderreen

The Maples Tulsk Road Strokestown

The Oaks Boyle Road Frenchpark

The Paddocks Athleague Athleague

The Plains Tulsk Road Ballinagare

Waterville Monksland Athlone

Woodberry Court Ardsallagh Beg Roscommon

Swords came second with  Killarney in  third place, Cavan 4th and  Dun Laoghaire 5th

The rest of the Litter League results are listed below.

See more here about the new Household Charge which is payable by all home owners from Jan 2012.

We did a quick survey of most of the County Council and City Council websites on January 6th to see if they were providing any  information about the Household Charge.

We checked the council websites for  Carlow, Cavan, Clare, Cork,  Donegal, South County  Dublin, Dublin City , Fingal , County Galway, Galway City Kerry, Kildare, Kilkenny, Laois, Leitrim, Limerick, Longford, Louth, Mayo, Meath, Monaghan, Offaly, Roscommon, Sligo, Tipperary,  Waterford, Westmeath, Wexford, Wicklow.
Some sites had no information about the Household Charge at all – Carlow , North Tipp, Offaly and Monaghan did not mention it -or if they did it was well hidden!

The majority of the Council websites had just a  link direct to the Household Charge website but no other info or mention of payment or forms being available.

Two  Councils  had a small bit of information about the charge and a link to the Householdcharge website . (Limerick County and Killarney).
Only three sites also had links to downloadable forms – Westmeath, Wicklow and Longford.

The only council that provided any useful information and confirmed that they were issuing forms and accepting payments was Fingal County Council.
Their website informs users that Household charge registration forms are available at all  Fingal County Council cash offices and reception desks in Swords & Blanchardstown, at all Fingal Libraries and at Citizens Information Centres. They also state that Registration forms can be returned  and payments can be made through Fingal County Council cash offices at Grove Rd, Blanchardstown or County Hall, Swords from 9.30am to 3pm Monday to Friday. Completed forms will be forwarded by the Council to the Household Charge payment office. They even have  staff in a  Household Charge Team available on  01 890 6254

Well done Fingal County Council – !

Update Jan 9th - Dublin City Council now have information about accepting payments  – they state on their site that anyone who wants to pay Household Charge to Dublin City Council should go to :  Customer Services Centre ,Ground Floor Block 3 Civic Offices.

Cavan have added some information that Household Charge Payments will be accepted at the Rates office, Courthouse, Cavan.

Galway County Council now say that forms can be collected  from  Galway County Council, Aras an Chontae, Prospect Hill, Galway.  Payments of Household Charge can be made bBy calling to your Local Authority office (By credit card/laser/cheque/bankdraft / or Cash)

Wexford County Council have confirmed that cash will be accepted in any of the following Wexford Local Authority Offices and together with your completed registration form will be forwarded to the Central Processing Unit in Dublin.

- Wexford County Council, Carricklawn, Wexford.

- Wexford Borough Council, Spawell Road, Wexford.

- New Ross Town Council, The Tholsel, New Ross

- Enniscorthy Town Council, Market Square, Enniscorthy.

- Gorey District Office, Civic Square, Gorey.

It is important to note – that even if your house is in one of the infamous Unfinished Estates – you still need to register for the Household Charge and then claim the exemption. If you don’t register you could be fined.

If you live in a dwelling that is not permanently attached to the ground – i.e a boat or a caravan – you do not need to register it for the household tax.

More details about Household Charge and Exemptions Here

Ardee, Athenry, Athlone, Bandon,  Cashel, Clonmel, Cork,
Drogheda, Dublin, Fethard, Galway, Kilkenny,
Limerick, New Ross,  Trim, Waterford, Wexford and Youghal.

The Viking raiders of the ninth century and the Anglo-Norman invaders of the twelfth built defensive strongholds that over the centuries came to enrich the fabric of Irish life.

These Irish Walled Towns are unique inheritances from times long past and should be treasured,

1. Lucan 15.33 Mbps
2. Maynooth  12.84 Mbps
3. Celbridge  11.53 Mbps
4. Swords  11.25  Mbps
5. Kilcock 10.76 Mbps
6. Naas  10.73 Mbps
7. Newbridge 10.68 Mbps
8. Carlow 9.39 Mbps
9. Athlone 9.31 Mbps
10. Dublin  8.88Mbps

By comparison – the same speed test site has the top 10 UK towns with average speeds ranging from 21Mbps to 29 Mbps. The top Irish town wouldn’t make it into the top 50 in the UK.

Cork came out with an av speed of 5.54 Mbps while Galway did slightly better with 6.28Mbps.
Tuam was the slowest shown – with av speeds of 1.31 Mbps

For Upload Speeds – these were the top ten Irish towns or cities

1 Dundalk 2.55 Mbps
2 Carlow 2.09 Mbps
3 Wicklow 1.90 Mbps
4 Athlone 1.76 Mbps
5 Lucan 1.70 Mbps
6 Maynooth 1.66 Mbps
7 Waterford 1.46 Mbps
8 Tralee 1.40 Mbps
9 Cavan 1.40 Mbps
10. Tipperary 1.33 Mbps

Overall – on the speedtest site – Ireland ranks in 52nd place. Results were obtained by analyzing test data between Feb 12, 2011 and Mar 13, 2011. Tests from 1,100,532 unique IPs have been taken in this country and of 7,145,506 total tests, 13,914 are being used for the current Index.

At a cost of €13 million Euro a year – the private company will be monitoring Ireland for speeding cars for 6000 hours a month at 600 different locations in 45 vans.
That works out at a cost of €180 per hour !
If it saves lives and injuries it will be money well spent .  The locations of the cameras are being made public in the hope that drivers will slow down.  Here are the Westmeath Camera Locations….

Athlone, Ballymun, Baltinglass, Bandon, Bantry, Belfast, Bray, Carlow, Cashel, Castlebar, Clonakilty, Cork, Dublin, Ennis, Galway, Greystones, Kilkenny, Kinsale, Leighlin, Limerick, Longford, Maynooth, Midleton, Mullingar, Newbridge, Newry, Portlaoise, Roscommon, Roscrea, Skibbereen, Sligo, Thurles,  Tralee, Tubbercurry, Waterford, Westport, Wexford

These towns in Ireland are working towards Fairtrade town status.

Antrim, Athy, Buncrana, Cahir, Carrick On Suir, Clones, Clonmel, Dun Laoghaire, Glanmire, Gort, Leixlip, Mallow, Naas, Nenagh, Schull, Temple Bar, Templemore, Tipperary, Trim, Tuam, Tullamore, Warrenpoint, and Newcastle West

Wexford came out as the cleanest place out of the 50 places in the survey – with Tallaght coming out as the worst Litter Blackspot.
Of course – there could be towns cleaner than Wexford and just as dirty as Tallaght – but only towns with populations over 6000 are included.

Here is the full table of rankings  released in August 2010

1 Wexford Clean to European Norms

2 Longford Clean to European Norms

3 Blanchardstown Clean to European Norms

4 Drogheda Clean to European Norms

5 Carlow Clean to European Norms

6 Trim Clean to European Norms

7 Killarney Clean to European Norms

8 Clonmel Clean to European Norms

9 Ballincollig Clean to European Norms

10 Lucan Clean to European Norms

11 Sligo Clean to European Norms

12 Ennis Clean to European Norms

13 Fermoy Clean to European Norms

14 Dungarvan Clean to European Norms

15 Letterkenny Clean to European Norms

16 Kildare Clean to European Norms

17 Waterford City Clean to European Norms

18 Cavan Clean to European Norms

19 Dun Laoghaire Clean to European Norms

20 Dundalk Clean to European Norms

21 Bray Clean to European Norms

22 Kilkenny Clean to European Norms

23 Tullamore Clean to European Norms

24 Tralee Clean to European Norms

25 Ballinasloe Clean to European Norms

26 Arklow Clean to European Norms

27 Mallow Clean to European Norms

28 Galway City Moderately Littered

29 Dublin City Moderately Littered

30 Newcastlewest Moderately Littered

31 Enniscorthy Moderately Littered

32 Swords Moderately Littered

33 Tramore Moderately Littered

34 Roscommon Moderately Littered

35 Mullingar Moderately Littered

36 Cork City Moderately Littered

37 Youghal Moderately Littered

38 Cobh Moderately Littered

39 Navan Moderately Littered

40 Tuam Moderately Littered

41 Wicklow Moderately Littered

42 Ballina Moderately Littered

43 Nenagh Moderately Littered

44 Newbridge Littered

45 Castlebar Littered

46 New Ross Littered

47 Monaghan Littered

48 Athlone Littered

49 Limerick City Littered

50 Midleton Seriously Littered

51 Naas Seriously Littered

52 Portlaoise Litter Blackspot

53 Tallaght Litter Blackspot

The cleanest town was Bray – whilst the two dirtiest were Limerick and Wicklow.

IBAL Anti Litter League Final Results 2009

1 Bray

2 Cavan

3 Drogheda

4 Clonmel

5 Longford

6 Wexford

7 Carlow

8 Sligo

9 Celbridge

10 Blanchardstown

11 Ballincollig

12 Dundalk

13 Mullingar

14 Trim

15 Portlaoise

16 Navan

17 Roscommon

18 Dún Laoghaire

19 Tramore

20 Shannon

21 Killarney

22 Leixlip

23 Dungarvan

24 Ballina

25 Castlebar

26 Kilkenny

27 Fermoy

28 Swords

29 Balbriggan

30 Newbridge

31 Newcastlewest

32 Midleton

33 Ashbourne

34 Thurles

35 Enniscorthy

36 Youghal

37 Monaghan

38 Lucan

39 Cobh

Moderately Littered

40 Waterford City

41 Buncrana

42 Tullamore

43 Arklow

44 Gorey

45 Galway

46 Ennis

47 Tuam

48 Tralee

49 New Ross

Littered

50 Cork City

51 Dublin City

52 Naas

53 Nenagh

Seriously Littered

54 Ballinasloe

55 Tallaght

56 Letterkenny

57 Athlone

58 Mallow

Litter Blackspots

59 Wicklow

60 Limerick City