According to a major study by Britain's communications regulator, bills in Ireland for both landlines and mobile phones are way out line with the eight other European countries, plus the US, Japan and China, covered by its research.

Landlines cost an average of £205 in 2005, exceeded only by Japan which came in at £248. Mobile bills were even higher, averaging £291 compared with Japan's £301. Despite the high costs, Ireland was among a group of countries, including Britain, Spain and Italy, with more mobile phones than people.

Ireland lags the world in broadband penetration with only 18% of homes having a high speed internet connection in 2005 compared with 40% in Britain and almost 60% in the Netherlands.

The only bright spot was in wireless connections where Ireland leads the world with more than 18 Wi-Fi hot spots per 100,000 people. However, the study notes that this is a crude measure because it fails to take account of how well the hot spots are dispersed around the country.

Television stations in Ireland serve up a very different mix of programming that in other European countries, the study found, with much more drama and far less factual programming or arts coverage. Some 54% of the output from RTE and other Irish channels was classified as fiction compared with only 15%-33% elsewhere.

Much of the drama served up to Irish viewers is imported soaps, with the survey noting the prominence of British programmes such as The Bill, Hollyoaks and Eastenders in RTE's schedules. Overall, some 46% of Irish TV output is imported, a figure that is way out of line with other European countries.

This may be why we watch less TV than our neighbours, averaging 180 minutes a day compared with a European average of 218 minutes. The Japanese are the world's biggest couch potatoes, sitting through four-and-ahalf hours of TV every day.

The good news is that only the French, Italians and Spanish have to endure more repeats than Irish viewers, although one-third of what appears on our screens has been broadcast before.

Despite recent hikes, the cost of an Irish TV licence is low by European standards, coming in at £106 in 2005 compared with £132 in Britain, £140 in Germany and £144 in Sweden.

The result is that the licence fee accounts for only 29% of TV funding in Ireland, far lower than in the UK or Germany.