One in 8 workers are foreign

The Irish labour force gained an extra 308,000 people between 2002 and 2006, according to the final set of CSO figures from last year's census with one-in-eight workers in Ireland being foreign nationals.

Elsewhere, the census found that four out of every five households have at least one car and 57% of people drive to work.

More than half of children travelled to school by car in 2006, compared to just 27% 15 years earlier.

Meanwhile, there are now 394,000 people in Ireland with a disability or a long-lasting health problem.

Just over half of Irish households have a PC, but slightly less than half have access to the Internet and less than half of these have broadband access.