Clones

Paying Household Charge at Council Offices

According to the Household Charge website – people who don’t want to register or pay online should be able to get registration forms and make payments at their local County Council or City Council offices.

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.

Disability Figures

9.3% of the population of Ireland stated that they had some type of disability in the 2006 Census.
The town with the highest percentage of people with a disability is Portrane – with 27.4% of the population. The presence of a fairly large hospital in a small town would easily raise the percentages. Portrane has a poulation of 1532 and 420 of those reported some level of disability.
Top ten towns in Ireland for high proportions of disability – (physical or mental):
Portrane 27.4%
Swinford 21.7%
Kilrush 17.8%
Castlerea 17.5%
Callan 15.3%
Tipperary 14.9%
Clones 14.8 %
Boyle 14.8 %
Ballinasloe 14.6%
Thomastown 14%The figures are from the 2006 census and are from all towns with population over 1500.

Clara has lowest percentage of Graduates

The town of Clara – according to analysis of Census 2006 figures – has just 6.54% of it’s residents with a third level degree or higher. (Those that have completed education)
This compares to Oranmore at the other end of the scale where 38% of the people are graduates .
The following Irish towns are also not very popular with people educated to degree level :
Carrick-on-Suir  6.76%
Rathnew 7.68%
Tullow  8.14%
Castlecomer-Donaguile 8.26%
Mountmellick  8.44%
Clones  8.55%
Bunclody-Carrickduff  8.7%
Tipperary  8.77%
Muinebeag  8.79%

Lithuanians Like Oldcastle Co Meath

Oldcastle in County Meath  has 17.78% of its population born in Lithuania – that is the highest percentage in Ireland. The next nearest town that is popular with Lithuanians is  Ballybay in Monaghan – which has 9.92% of residents born in Lithuania.
County Monaghan towns are very  popular with Lithuanians -  Carrickmacross , Monaghan and Clones all have around  5 to 6% Lituanian born living there.
The figures are from the 2006 Census of Ireland.

Clones has Least Educated Population

Latest census figures on education show that the town of Clones in County Monaghan has the largest percentage of people who ended formal educaton at Primary level – or had no formal education at all.
33.6% of Clones residents over 15 fall into this category.
The average percentage of people who did not undergo secondary education for Ireland as a whole is 18%.

Rural Ireland has Least Mortgages

House Owners with No Mortgage.
People living in Rural areas of Ireland are more likely to have no mortgage outstanding on their home. In the 2006 census 46.48% of rural dwellers owned their home and had no mortgage outstanding on it.
Of the towns with a population over 1500 – it was Kilrush in County Clare that had more mortgage free residents. In Kilrush 41.7% of housing units are owned outright with no mortgage outstanding according to census returns.
Other towns with a high percentage of mortgage free owners are:
Kanturk , Castlerea, Ballyshannon, Swinford, Clones, Castleisland, Castlecomer-Donaguile. All these towns had between 40% and 41% of the homes fully paid for.
Interestingly – 4 of these towns also appear in the top six towns with the highest percentage of over 65s. Castlerea, Kanturk, Kilrush and Swinford. These towns have rates ranging from 18% to 23% of over 65 year olds
Rural Ireland though appears to have younger home owners with no mortgage debts – only 12.24% of rural dwellers are over 65 . This might be accounted for by the higher proportion of self builds in the countryside – usually on land owned by the family with lower costs.