Less than half the households in the Republic were online by the beginning of the year, while fewer than one in five had broadband, the latest figures show.

The annual report on the Information Society and Telecommunications published by the Central Statistics Office (CSO) yesterday estimates that 797,700 households owned a computer in 2005, close to 55 per cent of all homes in the Republic. This compared with 649,400 or 46.2 per cent in 2004.

Just over 82 per cent of those homes were connected to the internet, according to the CSO. This means that around 45 per cent of all households in the Republic were online. This was close to the EU average of 48 per cent, but well behind countries like the Netherlands, Denmark, Sweden and Luxembourg, where seven out of 10 homes are online.

The figures show that broadband take-up accelerated during the year. However, it still trails far behind the EU. The number of broadband subscribers rose to 176,000 in the second quarter of 2005 from 63,100 during the corresponding period a year earlier.

Some of those who took up broadband were already online, as the number of dial-up subscribers dropped to 542,000 from 595,000 during the same period.

However, only 16 per cent of households with internet access had broadband, as against an EU average of close to one in two.

At home, people use the internet to pay for holidays, buy films and music and to book tickets for various events. They also use it for information search and online services, e-mail and to deal with public authorities.

The entire telecommunications business in the Republic was worth €3.9 billion last year, the report stated.