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.

Mobile speed cameras are being introduced in Dublin and nationwide to try and  reduce the incidence of fatal and serious injuries and improve road safety.

An Garda Síochána, in conjunction with the National Roads Authority have identified secctions of road  where a significant proportion of accidents occurred due to speeding.

These are the “speed enforcement zones” within Dublin that may be  be monitored by the new  GoSafe mobile camera vans or by Garda

Here is map from Garda.ie showing the roads in Dublin where the private contractor GoSafe will be monitoring with mobile speed cameras in vans. (Shown in Red – Zoom in for better view)

View Larger Map

Top Ten Towns in Ireland (pop over 5000) for people with no religion
Bray  7.77%
Maynooth  7.69%
Greystones  7.62%
Galway City  7.48%
Greater Dublin Area  7.01%
Skerries  6.23%
Donabate  6.02%
Lusk  5.71%
Malahide   5.62%
Swords   5.61%

Top Ten Best Educated Towns Overall:

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

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