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In Numbers

Prime numbers: the week in stats

How many Irish towns are ‘clean’? How much for an e-voting machine? And just how hard can a Sudoku be?

EVERY WEEK (starting today), TheJournal.ie will offer you a selection of stats and numerical nuggets to help you digest the week that has just passed.

2 – The number of bailouts that major bank Citigroup believe Ireland should negotiate – with a second one waiting in the wings in case things haven’t improved after the first. Both the government and the NTMA have ruled out seeking a second deal.

€720 – The amount per year that parish priests in the diocese of Cashel and Emly have been asked to contribute to a fund which covers the cost of child protection there. Curates have been asked to pay €600 to the voluntary fund.

38 – The number of Irish towns which are ‘clean to European norms‘, according to a survey of Irish Business Against Litter. Two areas – including north inner city Dublin – are ‘litter blackspots’. Trim is Ireland’s cleanest town.

240,000 – The number of Irish households who don’t plan on paying the household charge, according to a RedC opinion poll commissioned by Paddy Power.

28 – The number of weeks left until the London Olympic games – where preparation has not only been overshadowed by the continuing lockdown on the ticket sales website, but by the news that police had still managed to secretly sneak a bomb into the complex.

16 - The number of years since the last time an Irish gymnast made it to the Olympics. Step forward, Kieran Behan.

-0.0122 – The interest rate that Germany is currently paying on six-month loans – meaning that Germany is now actually making money by taking out loans.

25c – The extra tariff being levied on all Ryanair bookings from next week, which Ryanair blames on a new ‘EU tax on carbon emissions’.

2 – The age, in days, of Blue Ivy Carter before she had appeared in her first single. The new child of Beyoncé and Jay-Z lent vocals to her father’s song ‘Glory’, a celebration of her own birth.

€23,383 – The ‘leader’s allowance’ received by 12 independent members of the Seanad – who aren’t required to explain how they spend it.

7,500 – The number of e-voting machines the government is putting up for sale. There are also over 20,000 pieces of related paraphernalia being flogged off, as the government draws a line under the botched €55m experiment.

17 - The minimum number of clues that must be contained in a Sudoku puzzle to ensure it can be solved. That fact comes to you via UCD mathematician Gary McGuire.

10 - The number of IFTA nominations for TV crime drama Love/Hate, the most of any TV series this year.

950 - The number of jobs being cut by Ulster Bank – with 600 going in the Republic of Ireland and another 350 in the North.

301 - The age, in years, of the ‘St Francis Abbey’ brewery in Kilkenny – the home of Smithwick’s. It is to close next year as part of Diageo’s move to centralise brewing at an expanded complex in St James’s Gate.

Check out our previous ‘In numbers’ pieces >

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