The number of Irish homes with an internet connection
has swelled by 74,000, according to new figures from
the Central Statistics Office.
_______________________________________
Irish
e-shoppers grow to 500,000
Almost 500,000 Irish people have used the internet
to buy goods or services, with travel reservations
being the most common transaction followed by books.
This means that
40 percent of the 1.25 million Irish people who
use the internet have used it to buy goods and services.
The figures were
released by the Central Statistics Office (CSO)
in its Information Society Statistics report for
2004. Around 210,000 people have used the internet
to book holidays or accommodation, 96,000 have bought
books, magazines or e-learning materials, 90,000
have bought films or music and 65,000 have bought
tickets for events.
Torlach Denihan,
director of Retail Ireland, told ElectricNews.Net
that Irish retailers should develop an e-commerce
facility to benefit from the online sales channel.
"The key thing
that the government can do to encourage the Irish
retail sector is to make broadband widely available
at a cost-effective rate," said Denihan. "The
lack of broadband is a key barrier to the adoption
of e-commerce."
He also said that
Retail Ireland, a trade association drawn from the
members of IBEC, would be lobbying the government
to ensure that Irish VAT rates are kept in line
with other countries. The VAT rate in Ireland is
21 percent, whereas it's only 17 percent in the
UK.
The most popular
use of the internet is for communication, primarily
through the use of e-mail. Searching for information
is the second most popular activity and e-commerce
is the third most popular activity. Interacting
with the government was the next most popular activity,
followed by e-learning.
The report was
based on data gathered in March and June of 2004.
It included questions about home computing at household
level and individual questions in respect of persons
aged 16 to 74.
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Irish Homes Connect to the Web
The number of Irish homes with an internet connection
has swelled by 74,000, according to new figures
from the Central Statistics Office.
The agency said in its "Information
Society Statistics" for 2004 that about 537,000
homes in Ireland are connected to the net, compared
to 463,000 a year ago. It also reported that 650,000
homes, or 46 percent of Irish households, now
have a personal computer, a rise of 67,000 over
a year ago.
Most of the statistics from
the CSO indicated that the population of Ireland
is continuing to accept PCs and the internet at
a steady pace, although individuals who have traditionally
been reluctant to take to the "Information
Society" remain outside the loop. For example,
the CSO said that computer usage is highest for
students and persons in employment and is lowest
for those aged 65 or over. Home computer ownership
and internet access are higher in the Southern
and Eastern regions, compared to the Border, Midlands
and Western regions.
Ireland was also shown to
be behind many of its neighbours in Europe, such
as Denmark, where in 2003 79 percent of households
had a computer and almost two-thirds had internet
access. In Ireland, 42 percent of households had
a computer and about one-third had internet access
in 2003. Likewise, in Norway, the Netherlands,
Germany and the UK, more than half of all homes
had access to the internet, the CSO noted.
Still, the report was full
of signs that Ireland is progressing, with virtually
all businesses now using computers, the internet
and e-mail. Businesses mainly use the internet
to search for information, to avail of banking
and financial services, and to monitor markets,
the CSO said, adding that 18 percent of businesses
use DSL broadband to connect, compared to 9 percent
a year ago. Around 14 percent of companies use
some other form of broadband, the report added.
Sales in Ireland using e-commerce
account for about a quarter of industrial turnover,
the Central Statistics Office added. But it tempered
this figure by noting that only half of all businesses
have made some purchases using e-commerce, and
said that such purchases still account for a small
percentage of total purchases, except in the retail
and wholesale sectors, where about 8 percent of
purchases are by EDI (Electronic Data Interchange).
Among the general population,
the agency said that about 727,000 people use
a computer every day, while about 373,000 use
the internet at least once a day.
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