The public are being invited to have their say on the ‘Dublin Agglomeration Noise Action Plan 2024-2028.’
The draft plan has been put together by the local authorities of the Dublin Agglomeration (Dublin City Council, Dun Laoghaire Rathdown County Council, Fingal County Council, South Dublin County Council, Wicklow County Council and Kildare County Council).
The plan has been informed by and is based on the Strategic Noise Maps which were prepared for the agglomeration of Dublin in 2022 and which cover transport (road and rail) and industry related environmental noise sources.
By EU law, Strategic Noise Maps and Noise Action Plans are required to be made or revised every five years.
The final ‘Dublin Agglomeration Noise Action Plan 2024-2028’ must be completed and issued to the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) by 18th July 2024 and subsequently issued by the EPA to the EU Commission by the end of January 2025.
There will be a period of formal public consultation from Friday 12th April 2024 to Friday 24th May 2024 and members of the public are welcome to submit their views on this draft ‘Dublin Agglomeration Noise Action Plan.’
In addition, the draft Noise Action Plan may be viewed on the Dublin City Council website or the Dublin City Council Consultation Hub at the following links;
Submissions on the draft Noise Action Plan may be made through the Consultation Hub or alternatively by email airquality@dublincity.ie or in writing to, Air Quality Monitoring and Noise Control Unit, Environment & Transportation Department, Block 3 Floor 1, Civic Offices, Wood Quay, Dublin 8.
Over the past few years, Google Maps has transformed how people interact with the world with features like fuel-efficient routing and Live View to help you orient yourself when walking with augmented reality. Today with the power of AI, Google are announcing even more updates so you can confidently plan and navigate trips, make sustainable choices, and get quick inspiration for things to do.
Chris Phillips, VP & General Manager, Geo gives us the details..
Know before you go with Immersive View for Routes
Google Maps provides over 20 billion kilometers of directions every day. And with AI, we’re reimagining how you plan your trips before you go. At I/O this year, we announced Immersive View for routes, an entirely new way to preview every step of your journey — whether you’re driving, walking or cycling. This week, Immersive View for routes starts rolling out in Amsterdam, Barcelona, Dublin, Florence, Las Vegas, London, Los Angeles, Miami, New York, Paris, San Francisco, San Jose, Seattle, Tokyo and Venice on Android and iOS.
Say you want to bike along the water to the Palace of Fine Arts in San Francisco. Just request cycling directions, then tap the Immersive View preview to see your route in a stunning, multidimensional view from start to finish. You can prepare for each turn as if you were there with detailed, visual turn-by-turn directions, and use the time slider to plan when to head out based on helpful information, like simulated traffic and weather conditions. That way, you can easily avoid riding during rainy weather or heavy traffic.
All of this builds on our work for Immersive View for places, which uses AI to fuse together billions of Street View and aerial images so you can know what a restaurant or landmark is like before you go. Now developers can also create their own immersive experiences with the launch of Photorealistic 3D Tiles in Google Maps Platform this week.
Easily understand your surroundings with Lens in Maps
Google Maps also makes it easier to understand your surroundings once you get somewhere — like if you’re exiting a subway station and need to orient yourself or if you’re scoping out a new neighborhood and need to find the nearest coffee shop. Lens in Maps (formerly called Search with Live View) uses AI and augmented reality to help you quickly acclimate yourself — whether you’re navigating a new city or discovering local hidden gems.
Simply tap the Lens icon in the search bar and lift your phone to find information about nearby ATMs, transit stations, restaurants, coffee shops and stores. In our biggest expansion of this feature yet, starting this week Lens in Maps is coming to more than 50 new cities including Austin, Las Vegas, Rome, São Paulo and Taipei.
Navigate with confidence with a more detailed map
Today, hundreds of millions of drivers depend on Google Maps’ helpful information about real-world conditions, like nearby crashes or upcoming traffic jams.
Soon, the navigation map will reflect the real world even more accurately. In addition to updated colors throughout the map, you’ll see more realistic buildings to help you better orient yourself – like if you’re driving downtown and need to understand where you are during the final stretch of your ride. And on highways, where some of the trickiest driving maneuvers often happen (like that annoying exit that requires you to quickly cross multiple lanes), you’ll see improved lane details to help you feel prepared. These updates start rolling out in the coming months in 12 countries, including the U.S., Canada, France and Germany.
In the U.S., you’ll soon see if there are HOV lanes along your route so you can make a more informed decision about how to get to your destination. And in Europe, our AI-powered speed limit information is expanding to 20 countries so you can stay safe even when it’s hard to spot speed limit signs on the road. Both features start rolling out on Android, iOS, and for cars with Google Built-in in the coming months.
Reduce charging anxiety with even more EV information
If you’re an electric vehicle driver, you may be familiar with charging anxiety. Whether you’re on a road trip, commuting to work, or heading across town, there’s nothing worse than not knowing where you can charge mid-trip.
Starting this week, building on our capabilities in cars with Google built-in, EV drivers on Android and iOS will now see even more helpful charging station information, including whether a charger is compatible with their vehicle and whether the available chargers are fast, medium, or slow to help you find the charging station that best meets your needs. And since 25% of all chargers in the U.S. are down at any given time, you can also see when a charger was last used to help you avoid wasting time heading to a broken charger. These updates start rolling out globally on iOS and Android this week wherever EV charging station information is available.
EV charging information will also be available to developers on Google Maps Platform in the Places API, so companies can show real-time EV charging station information in their websites and apps.
Find inspiration for things to do with new ways to search
Sometimes you know exactly what you want to do, but aren’t sure where to go. Search in Google Maps is evolving to give you even more answers to your questions, help you discover things to do, and find inspiration in a whole new way.
Now, when you search in Maps for specific things like the best place to find “animal latte art” or “pumpkin patch with my dog,” you’ll get photo-first results of what you’re looking for. These results are based on the analysis of billions of photos shared by the Google Maps community — all done with AI and advanced image recognition models. With this visual list of places, you can discover new spots that match exactly what you’re looking for. Just scroll through the results, tap on a photo to learn more, and navigate right there. This new way to search in Maps starts rolling out in France, Germany, Japan, the U.K. and the U.S. this week, and we’ll expand to more countries over time.
And for those times when you’re starting from scratch and have no idea what to do — like when you magically have a free weekend — you’ll soon see better-organized search results to spark your imagination. So if you’re in Tokyo, you could search for “things to do” to see thematic place suggestions like “anime”, “cherry blossoms” or “art exhibitions.” Tap on the places that interest you to learn more, and even save the options to a list if you want to check them out later. Thematic results for activities and dining roll out globally on Android and iOS in the coming weeks.
Google Maps is transforming how people explore and navigate, and AI continues to play a pivotal role in bringing how we’re building innovative experiences for people around the world. To learn more about how we use AI, check out this deep dive about how AI and imagery bring Immersive View to life.
Gamma, a leading location intelligence technology company in Ireland and the UK, has mapped out the 2022 Census data which shows an increase in the number of households – this has gone up by almost 140,000 – and reveals a shift regarding the number of homes being owned outright.
In fact, the number of homes owned outright now stands at 37% – which equates to 679,718 in total and is 112,949 properties more than in 2011. In comparison, in 2011, there were more households that were owned with a mortgage than owned outright. This has been reversed over the last decade with the number of households being owned with a mortgage falling by 51,941.
Looking at the rental sector, there are an additional 48,457 households recorded as rentals in the 2022 Census compared to 2016. Meanwhile, there are an additional 63,373 households which are owner occupied.
Rented properties are slowly increasing their share of the overall property market in every county in Ireland, with the exception of Kildare and Wicklow. This is particularly evident in Dublin City, where 9 of every 10 additional households in the area are rentals.
The number of households who rented their accommodation from a private landlord rose by 7%, or 20,904 properties, to 330,632 between 2016 and 2022. There were an additional 10,014 households renting from a Local Authority, which is fewer than the 13,115 additional households renting from a voluntary body.
In terms of the biggest increase in the number of households at a county level, Meath saw the largest percentage increase (13.6%). The other counties which saw increases of over 10% are all in and around Dublin, with Kildare showing a 12.5% increase, followed by Fingal at 11.4% and Wicklow with 10.3% more households in 2022 compared to 2016.
Richard Cantwell, Lead Consultant for Gamma Location Labs, commented: “It’s positive to see such a large proportion owning their properties outright. With the current housing situation, it is perhaps unsurprising that fewer households are owned with a mortgage and highlights the need for more supply. It could also explain why people’s behaviours are changing in terms of property type and size.”
In almost every county, detached houses are the most common property type. The exceptions are Galway City and most of Dublin where semi-detached houses dominate, as well as Dublin City and Cork City where terraces are most common.In that vein, the number of permanent private households has increased from 1,697,665 in 2016 to 1,836,728, an increase of 8.2%, which is slightly higher than overall population growth.
Last year’s Census also highlighted a jump in households in purpose-built apartments, having grown from 5.5% of all household types to 10.4% between 2002 and 2022. Despite this doubling, the proportion of Irish households that live in flats or apartments is far below the European average of 46%. Meanwhile, the bedsit as an accommodation type is falling out of favour. Compared to 2016 when there were 3,266 private households living in bedsits, the total now stands at 1,659.
The 2022 Census was the first time people were asked about the number of bedrooms in their home, with the results finding that three bedrooms is the most common (35.7%), followed by four bedrooms (25.7%) and then two bedrooms (15.9%). One-bedroom households accounted for just 5.5% of households, while 7.8% have five or more bedrooms. The Census also showed that there are 565 palatial mansions with 10 or more bedrooms across the country – somewhat surprisingly, there are more of these in Galway City (57) than in Dublin City (55).
Understandably, the Dublin City Council area has the highest proportion of one and two-bedroom houses in the country, with 43% of properties falling into this category. In rural counties in the west, this figure is much smaller, with Galway County having the smallest proportion of one and two-bedroom properties (13.1%).
This trend is also reflected in the figures relating to properties with five or more bedrooms, with the same two areas (Dublin City and Galway County) at the opposite end of the scale. Just 2.7% of properties in Dublin City have five or more bedrooms. In Cork City that figure is 5.7%. Dun Laoghaire-Rathdown tops the list of urban counties with 9.1% of properties there having five or more bedrooms – significantly more than South Dublin (4.1%) and Fingal (5.6%).
As well as changing property trends, the Census also showed significant shifts in the age profile of the populace, which has been tracking upwards for some time. Some 15% of the population are now aged over 65, compared to 13.4% in 2016 and 11.7% in 2011. These shifts are further reflected in the 1.4-year increase to the average age across the country, which now stands at 38.8 (up from 37.4 in 2016).
Since the last Census in 2016, the population of Ireland has increased by 387,274 (or 7.5%) to 5,149,139. This is the highest population in the 26 counties of Ireland since 1841, when it was 6,528,799.
Commenting on this, Richard Cantwell said: “We can see from the Census results that Ireland’s population is continuing to mature and grow, and it’s very interesting to see the variations in housing types and ownership across the country in the context of these demographics. For example, the maturing population could be the driver of more outright home ownership in certain areas, while increasing population is impacting on the rental market in others”.
Esri Ireland, the market leader in Geographic Information Systems (GIS), has created a digital map highlighting some of the best loved and lesser known festivals happening across the island of Ireland this summer.
Using Esri’s ArcGIS digital mapping system, the interactive map has something for all tastes and interests, allowing you to plan your ultimate festival adventure with ease.
Indulge in the tasty tunes at Forbidden Fruit in Dublin, dive into the inspiring realm of creativity at Wildroots in Sligo, let your senses be serenaded at the New Ross Piano Festival, and unleash your wild side at the electrifying Folk Festival in Cork. This essential map will serve as your trusted guide, leading you straight to the beating heart of Ireland’s vibrant festival culture this summer.
Esri Ireland, the market leader in Geographic Information Systems (GIS), has created a digital map highlighting nearly 500 ancient and long-established woodlands around Ireland this National Tree Week, which runs until Sunday 26th March.
Ancient woodlands have been continuously wooded since before planting and afforestation became common practice, some of which date back to the 1600s. These woodlands are steeped in both biological and cultural significance, and their roots may even have links to prehistoric wildwoods.
The interactive map also explores a diverse range of woodland types, including conifer plantations, mixed woodlands, and those with non-native tree species.
The theme for National Tree Week 2023, #BiodiversityBeginswithTrees, aims to inspire the public to plant and protect trees and highlight the crucial role that trees play in improving biodiversity. Since its inception in 1985, National Tree Week has been responsible for planting over half a million trees in Ireland.
Esri Ireland, the market leader in Geographic Information Systems (GIS), has created a digital map of some of the best parades, festivals and events happening across the country this St. Patrick’s Day.
Get your Gaelic groove on with Esri’s interactive map, which showcases a host of festivities to cater to all ages. Celebrate Ireland’s patron saint and marvel at spectacular floats, peruse the street artists, jig to ceilidh bands, feast at food stands, and have your ears tickled by enchanting yarn-spinners.
Whether you’re dancing in Belfast, going medieval in Kilkenny, or soaking up the culture in Waterford, this map will sham-rock your St. Patrick’s Day!
Esri Ireland, the market leader in Geographic Information Systems (GIS), has created a digital map which celebrates inspirational women in Ireland and around the world for International Women’s Day which falls today, Wednesday 8th March.
Esri Ireland’s female employees have contributed to the map by sharing stories of influential figures who have made positive impacts on their lives. From architects in Africa and swimmers in Sydney to authors in America and botanists in Bantry, this interactive map demonstrates the influence of women across borders.
Esri Ireland is also inviting the public to share their own stories about women who have inspired them. These women can be anyone who serves as a role model, mentor, or source of motivation, whether they have made an impact through small acts in their daily lives or significant contributions in the public sphere. The aim of the map is to highlight ‘lesser-known’ women, showcasing the diversity and breadth of women’s contributions around the world.
This year’s International Women’s Day theme is #EmbraceEquity. The purpose is to encourage global conversations on why equal opportunities aren’t enough and why equal isn’t always fair. Everyone starts from a different place in life, so true inclusion involves equitable action. According to recent data published by the Central Statistics Office (CSO), less than one-third (32%) of Ireland’s information and communications technology (ICT) workers are women.
Esri Ireland embraces a diverse workforce, 40% of which are female. All employees who join Esri Ireland are assigned a career coach who offers mentorship and guidance to help advance their career path.
Esri Ireland, the market leader in Geographic Information Systems (GIS), has created a digital map of some of the best Christmas festivals, light shows, and ice skating events happening across the country this holiday season.
Using Esri’s ArcGIS digital mapping system, the interactive map highlights a range of enchanting spectacles and festive activities to suit all ages. Experience the wonder of Christmas by immersing yourself in a winter wonderland; browsing market stalls, marvelling at the glittering lights, soaking up festive music, and gliding across ice-rinks.
From magical train rides in Donegal and family-friendly festivals in Kerry, to glistening light shows in Galway and fun-filled ice-skating in Dublin, this map will help bring festive cheer to life this Christmas season.
Esri Ireland, the market leader in Geographic Information Systems (GIS), has created a digital map of some of the most fun, spooky and frightful happenings across the country this Halloween.
Using Esri’s ArcGIS digital mapping system, the interactive map highlights both popular events and hidden gems to suit all tastes. For those who want to get into the spirit, keep the kids entertained, or have a fun fright, our island has something for everyone to make this Halloween a spooktacular night.
From terrifying train rides in Belfast and haunted hayrides in Cork, to pumpkin trails in Offaly and family-friendly fall fests in Wexford, this map will help witches and wizards of all ages and interests plan their weekend for Halloween 2022.
