Irish Towns Guide

Yet another litter survey by  IBAL  . The 2009 results were released today (Jan 4th 2010)  The  litter survey covers 60 towns with  over 6,000 population . Sites are graded by An Taisce according to international standards.

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

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Tallaght is the dirtiest town in Ireland – that’s according to “Irish Business Against Litter “  They are an alliance of companies who say they share a sharing a belief that continued economic prosperity  is contingent on a clean, litter-free environment. As part of the IBAL Anti-Litter League, An Taisce monitors all towns of population 6,000 and over, independently in accordance with international grading standards.

The first round of results were published today and 3 towns came out as being Litter Blackspots. These towns were  Tullamore , Roscommon and worst of all was Tallaght .
The towns of Bray , Ballina,  Cobh,  Enniscorthy,  and Longford did not come out too well  either – they were all classed as Seriously Littered.

Slightly better – but still classed as Littered were the towns of Athy, Kilkenny ,Limerick City, Cork City, Ranelagh and  Mallow
Ennis came out top of the League out of  55 towns and cities in Ireland.

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The 2007 figures on Irish leaving cert pupils and entry figures for Irish third level institutions show that the average percentage of students going into 3rd level education in Ireland is 75%. (This does not include those going to UK or abroad)

There are some schoools where less than 60% of pupils went into Irish 3rd level education.
These schools are:

St Joseph’s Secondary, An Uaimh, Co Meath
Gormanston College, Co Meath
St Caimin’s Community School, Shannon, Co. Clare
Community College, Esker, Co Dublin
Castleblayney College, Co. Monaghan
Our Lady’s Secondary, Templemore, Co Tipperary
Brigidine Convent, Mountrath, Co Laoise
CBS, Colaiste Eamonn Ris, Wexford
Grennan College, Thomastown, Co Kilkenny
St Mary’s College, Dundalk, Co Louth
Mount Temple Comprehensive, Dublin 3
Killina Secondary School, Rahan, Co Offaly
St Brendan’s College, Belmullet, Co Mayo
Deutsche Schule, St. Kilian’s, Dublin 14
St. Fintan’s High School, Sutton, Dublin 13
Gairm Scoil, Athenry, Co Galway
Castleknock Community College, Dublin 15
Vocational School, Borris, Carlow
Eureka Secondary, Kells, Co Meath
Colaiste Bride, Enniscorthy, Co Wexford
Kylemore Abbey, Co. Galway

Figures:

Each year the Irish Times puts together some figures of each secondary school’s Leaving Cert students and combines them with figures from Third Level institutions in Ireland . . The Universities and Colleges record which school the first year students were enrolled at in the previous year. The two sets of figures combined give us some idea of the percentages of Leaving Cert students from each school that are entering Third Level education in Ireland. A league table is produced of all the secondary schools in Ireland . Of course – these figures are not a full indication of a schools’ performance – but it is all we have. The figures don’t include students who go on to Universities outside the Republic of Ireland. But in the absence of any Irish Government school performance figures – it is all we have to help pick out schools that might be better or worse than others at preparing students for qualifying for entry to University or other 3rd level education.

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The town of Tipperary is behind the rest of Ireland when it comes to Information Technolgy. Census 2006 figures showed that  just 11.4% of Tipperary households had broadband and 71.84% of households had no internet access at all. This is the highest percentage of any town in Ireland  (National average 51.7%)
Also – just 36.35% of households owned a personal computer  compared  to the national average of  53.5%.
The high proportion of rented accommodation might be one of the reasons for these figures.

Ten worst towns in Ireland for IT (with population over 1500)
Tipperary
Cashel
Ballyhaunis
Roscrea
Ballaghaderreen
Bunclody-Carrickduff
Ballyjamesduff
Castlerea
Kanturk
Enniscorthy

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The town of Longford has the highest unemployment rate in Ireland – of all towns over 1500 population.
Census figures show that the percentage of unemployed people in Longford is 11.14% – compared to a national figure of 5.89%. Longford has  almost double the average rate of unemployment.
Top Ten Towns for Worst Unemployment
Rathnew
Abbeyfeale
New Ross
Ballina (Mayo)
Carrick-on-Suir
Enniscorthy
Athy
Castlecomer-Donaguile
Cootehill
All these towns have rates of unemployment above 8.68%

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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

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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

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