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

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