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A SURVEY HAS found that nearly 80 per cent of all households in Ireland have access to the internet.
Data from the Central Statistics Office’s (CSO) survey of information and computer technology (ICT) in the household has found that from 2009 to 2011, 81 per cent of all households have access to a computer, an increase of 16 percentage points since 2007.
Seventy-eight per cent of all households have access to the internet, up from 57 per cent in 2007.
The CSO found that holiday accommodation and other travel arrangements were cited as being the most popular types of purchases made by individuals over the internet.
Seventy-seven per cent of 16 to 29-year-olds access the internet almost every day compared with just 21 per cent of those aged 60 to 74.
The statistics – taken as part of the Quarterly National Household Survey in the first three months of this year – specifically examined the use of computers in non-work related activities.
Of those households who did not have a computer, 11 per cent said it was because they felt they did not need one, other reasons that were cited included not being confident enough to use one, finding them too expensive, or having access elsewhere.
Of the households who did not have internet access 10 per cent said it was because they did not need one with cost, lack of skills, access elsewhere and privacy issues also cited as reasons for not being online.
In sign of internet users in Ireland being less than confident on online security matters, 58 per cent of individuals said they felt they are able to protect their personal data while 55 per cent said the felt they can protect their computers from virus attacks.
When broken down into age categories the results diverged.
Almost 25 per cent of individuals in the age category of 60 to 74 felt capable of protecting their personal data. By contrast 77 per cent of those aged 16 to 29 felt they could protect their personal data.
There were similar patterns regarding people’s abilities to prevent virus attacks. Over 70 per cent of 16 to 29-year-olds said they felt capable of stopping virus attacks compared with just 23 per cent of 60 to 74-year-olds.
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These headline figures are just spin hiding the disgraceful truth about the broadband situation in this country. The 20% without access to broadband are facing an horrendous wait for some kind of service. What is of greater concern is the standard of broadband many of the 80% are receiving. What they are rolling out now, IS ALREADY OBSOLETE. Much of this is because current TD’s are unable to understand the importance of the issue, and the disadvantage they are visiting upon our children.
Comment of the week Chrissy.
I second that.
With the average speed of a 3 legged asmatic tortoise carrying the shopping.
That basically sums it up. I wish I was able to be so linguistically succinct.
20% of people may never get to read this article.
79% of that is slower than smoke signals
Where do they get the term “broadband” from?Dial up in disguise. Unfortunately the crowd of useless buffoons in Irish political circles still cannot realise the importance of rolling out broadband to boost business, communication and generally drag us into the 21st century!
my parents in law live 45 min from Dublin in longwood co. meath and are unable to receive anything better than dial up internet. in this day and age that us completely unacceptable. the govt and eircom should be ashamed. this country is trying to sell itself as the European silicon valley for gods sake!
How else are people supposed to look for jobs?
I think its great… means that I can spend at least an hour watching a 10minute You tube
I can make a cake, paint the walls, even go to sleep whilst its loading. Oh joy…
I find the internet very useful. It’s great for keeping track of the news. Some news stories are easier to come across than others though.
For example, the #mytramexperience story is very well covered on many different news websites, whereas the story about 4 muslim women attacking Rhea Page in a violent racist assault and being given 150 hours community service and a 6 month suspended sentence as punishment, is not so well covered. Here’s a link to the story that I found which also includes CCTV footage of the attack. http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/uknews/crime/8938468/Attack-on-Rhea-Page-captured-on-CCTV-in-Leicester.html
Wow, what a terrible racist rant by that awful woman on the team.
All I can say is that was sick, the poor girl!!!
Pretty surprised actually, thought it would be more than 80%.
It’s amazing to think that in 2011 people in Ireland have better access to the internet than to a fresh clean water supply. Me being one of them. Still, at least I can moan about that here.
This was a classic Journal article. Now thumb me up!!
Yea 80% of households have iPhone’s!
My iPhone is the only thing that is keeping me sane. My broadband drops approx every 5 mins. In process of changing provider so if no improvement there will be War!
Pity it’s still shite duh, common eircom copper wiring is useless bring on fiber.
Internet connection is not cheap in Ireland. If a recession is on, how can 80% of households afford Internet package. We are not exactly starving but I’m sure the government will use this info to introduce a extra Internet safety tax.
I agree Marc. Using the word “survey” for anything the CSO does is a bit of a stretch.
What an incredibly vague survey! How many access BB over the domestic telephone infrastructure as opposed to mobile technology? The former is so bad bad in this country.
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