EVERY WEEK, TheJournal.ie offers a selection of statistics and numerical nuggets to help you digest the week that has just passed.
2,088 – The number of votes won by Labour’s Eoin Holmes when he ran for Meath County Council in 2009. While a large chunk of his district is now in the Louth constituency, Holmes won only 1,112 votes in the Meath East by-election – with under 4 per cent of the total valid poll.
909 – The number of days between Labour becoming the country’s most popular party, and the party crashing to fifth in Meath East. On September 30, 2010, an Irish Times/Ipsos MRBI poll put Labour on 33 per cent of support – with FF and FG tied on 24.
1,176,100 – The total number of visitors to Ireland in the three months between December and February. That’s up by 30,000 on the same period the previous year.
5 – The number of teams that the Republic of Ireland have beaten in competitive home games (excluding the short-lived Carling Nations Cup) under Giovanni Trapattoni. The Irish have beaten Cyprus, Georgia, Andorra, Armenia and Macedonia – but lost to the likes of Germany, France and Russia, and only drawn against Slovakia, Austria, Bulgaria and Montenegro. Even a 2-2 home draw against Italy in October 2009 saw Ireland lose a lead late on.
5 – Also the number of local Irish radio franchises who could lose their licences in the coming years, after rival operators put in bids to win them from the BAI. Beat FM, Highland Radio, Ocean FM, Midlands 103 and Sunshine 106.8FM all face competition to hang onto their licences.
1.5 per cent – The amount by which the value of an average home fell in February 2013, according to CSO figures. Dublin had the slightest drop. at 0.3 per cent, but homes there are still worth 3 per cent more than they were in February 2012.
€300 – The maximum daily withdrawal permitted from a bank in Cyprus, since the country’s banks reopened on Thursday – after almost a fortnight being shut.
€146,550 – The amount donated to a homeless man in Kansas City after a woman launched an online fund to support him after doing a good deed. The woman dropped her engagement ring into the man’s begging bowl – but instead of selling it, he hung onto it and returned it to the woman when she came back. She then set up an online fund to raise cash for the man – who was also reunited with his estranged family thanks to the publicity.
€723,000 – Ryan Tubridy’s pay in 2011, when he was the highest earner in RTÉ. The Late Late Show host saw his pay fall to €495,000 last year as RTÉ tries to shave 30 per cent off the pay of its top presenters.
€110,000,000 – The estimated amount that the Irish government will have to stump up as its contribution to the EU’s budget deficit for 2012. The EU overspent by €11.2 billion in 2012, blaming the member states for demanding that it do more.
€3,800,000,000 – The approximate amount, before tax, lost by AIB Group in 2012.
15,900,000 – Think of a cube of snow, where each side is a foot long. That’s a lot of snow, right? Organisers overseeing the 2014 Winter Olympics are saving up 15.9 million cubic feet of snow (450,000 cubic metres) from mountains outside Sochi to make sure that a warm winter doesn’t leave the city short of supply when the games start in 11 months’ time.
99.8 per cent – The amount of AIB which is owned by the taxpayer after it invested €20.7 billion in AIB and its now-subsidiary EBS.
3,000,000,000,000 – The number of bits of information, per second, being rammed into the internet by a major cyber attack this week. The dispute – between an anti-spam watchdog and a company which says it was unfairly included on a blacklist – resulted in a major ‘DDoS’ attack which slowed down the internet for users across Europe.
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