Greystones

Unfinished Ghost Estates and the Household Charge

We are still waiting for the list of unfinished estates that will be exempt from the 2012 Household Charge.
The total number of estates is expected to be less than 1300. The Irish Independent seems to think it will be less than 300 estates.

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

Dublin Locations of Speed Cameras

Dublin City Speed Cameras

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

Fairtrade Towns in Ireland

The following Irish Towns had Fairtrade status at the end of 2009:

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

Top Ten Cleanest Places in Ireland June 2008

 A Litter League of all towns with more than 6000 population in Ireland had the 1st round of results published today.

The top 10 towns were

1 Ennis
2 Greystones
3 Fermoy
4 Portlaoise
5 Howth
6 Dungarvan
7 Dundalk
8 Letterkenny
9 Thurles
10 Clonmel

The litter figures are produced by ” Irish Business Against Litter ” – an alliance of companies sharing a belief that continued economic prosperity – notably in the areas of tourism, food and direct foreign investment – 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.

Greystones makes top Five Towns in Ireland

Greystones came fifth in our league table of the BEST towns in Ireland .
Our top 20 chart was based on census figures from 2006 and was compiled using statistics on Education, Housing, Lone Parents, IT, Unemployment to analyse all the towns. Only towns with populations over 1500 were included.At the 2006 census – the population of Greystones was 14569 .The unemployment rate in Greystones was 3.1% – almost half the national average in Ireland of 5.89%
In Greystones – only 2.22% of the workforce are unable to work because of disability or ill health – which is again under half the national average of 4.71% .

Most workers in Greystones are are employed in management or clerical jobs (27% of the workforce)
Lone parents- make up 15.81% of all households in Greystones – this is just below the national average which is 19.29%

Housing: Local Authority rented homes make up 4.64% of the dwelling units in Greystones about half of the average for Irish towns of 9.06% of Council houses.

Rented homes in Greystones make up 15.86% of all homes in the town – which is just over half of the national average of 28.1%.
More than a quarter of all homes (27.56%) in Greystones are owned outright – with no mortgage outstanding – This is similar to the average for Ireland as a whole which is 28%.Central Heating is not installed in just 4.85% of dwellings in Greystones – which is better than the national average of 10.2%.

Information Technology. : 72% of households own personal computers in Greystones – compared to 53.3% nationally. Broadband connections were at 36.3% in Greystones in 2006 about 75% above the national average which was a fairly poor 20.18% .
33% of homes had no internet access at all in Greystones – compared to the national average of 51%.
Education : Just 8.24% of the people living in Greystones were only educated to primary school level or had no formal education at all. This is half the national average of 16.72%. eople with a third level degree or a higher qualification – make up 33% of the Greystones workforce – which is more than double the national average of 16.57%.

Community involvement in Greystones is above the average for the country – 19% of the over 15s said they carried out some sort of voluntary work.The percentage of people with a disability in Greystones is below the national average of 9.8% at 8.6%.

Bray is losing it’s Religion

Bray has 7.77% of it’s population who stated they had no religion in the 2006 census. This is the highest out of all Irish towns (with pop. over 5000)
In Ireland as a whole  4.39% of the population stated they had no religious faith.

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%

Oranmore people best educated in Ireland?

 Oranmore has the best-educated residents in Ireland. Analysing figures from the 2006 census released yesterday – reveals that Oranmore in Co Galway has the highest percentage of graduates living there.
38.35% have a degree or higher and 53.3% of Oranmore residents who have completed their education – have a 3^rd level qualification. The next best educated town is Annacotty – with  52.66%  having completed third level and  37.17% obtaining a degree or higher.

Top Ten Best Educated Towns Overall:

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

Biggest Broadband Uptake in Ireland

Malahide has the highest broadband uptake rate in Ireland.
The percentage of households in Malahide with broadband internet access is the highest of all large towns in Ireland – at 46.34%. Malahide also has the second highest rate of PC ownership – at 78.05% of households owning at least one personal computer. (Portmarnock is top at 80.33%).
Broadband uptake varies enourmously across Ireland – the two main factors influencing uptake would be availability and also economic status.
Portmarnock, Leixlip, Dunboyne, Celbridge, Greystones, Donabate, Skerries, Annacotty, Naas, Ratoath, Rathcoole and Maynooth all have broadband uptake of more than 33% of households.
The uptake figure nationally is 19.98%.
Some towns have a broadband uptake as low as 3.2% (Castlebridge).
Other towns with low broadband uptake are Clogherhead, Ballyjamesduff, Bunclody/Carrickduff, Stamullen , Kilcoole, Ballyhaunis – all with less than 10% of households with a broadband connection.