Irish Rural Link has raised concerns at the level of households aged over 65 that have no internet connection of any kind.
Census figures published yesterday on housing shows that while 83% of dwellings have some form of internet connection, 20% of homes headed by someone aged 65 or over have no internet connection of any kind.
The rate is higher again when it comes to the same age group of people who live alone, at 34%.
Seamus Bolad of Irish Rural Link says it's very important that older people are not left behind in an age when many services are being moved online and basic computer literacy will play an even more important part in people's lives.
Speaking on the Joe Finnegan show this morning, he says there is a genuine hunger among idea people to learn about computers if they can access one-to-one training:
On our programme we actually had two people over the age of 80 who actually started third level studies as a result of being able to use the internet.
That was two people starting from a position where switching on a computer was a major challenge.
So yes there is a hunger there, there is a desire there, many older people might say to you Joe, look we learned how to cycle, we learned all sorts of skills.
Just because we're in the older age bracket doesn't mean we don't want to learn.
