IntroductionThis paper seeks to outline and investigate the growth of Internet penetration in Ireland. The origin of the Internet was ARPANET, a project funded by the United States Department of Defense (DOD) in 1969. Kennedy (2012) states that twenty years ago Barry Flanagan founded Ireland On-Line in his home in Galway, starting to the Internet as a consumer phenomenon in Ireland. The Internet was therefore born in 1992 in Ireland, twenty-three years after its debut in the United States. Since then the growth in Internet penetration has been rapid. Context The number of homes with a computer connected to the Internet increased from 5% in 1998 to 41.5% in 2005. (CSO 2005). This shows that there has been exponential growth over the years. In 2013 the Internet in Ireland is used by 77% of the population and makes an important contribution to the economy and education Wikipedia (2014). The increase in Internet use in households is clearly shown in Figure 1 and also clearly shows how the number of those with computers at home with Internet is catching up with those with computers without Internet. In other words, the two lines in Figure 1 will eventually merge because the Internet is growing rapidly. Over the years, the Internet has become a necessity rather than a luxury. Figure 1 Source CSO (2013) Growth of the Internet There are many factors that reveal that there has been massive growth of the Internet over the years. In 2010 it was revealed that the Internet was running out of addresses to assign to new devices and this was due to the massive growth of the web, particularly mobile Internet. (Kennedy, 2010) This is one of the signs that there is high demand that cannot be met by supply and that intervention is needed to meet growth....... middle of paper..... .nd-more-of-us-are-using-mobile-devices-26872528.html [Accessed April 2, 2014].Kennedy (2010) “Move to IPv6 is Critical as Internet Hits Growth Limits” [Online ]. Siliconrepublic. Available from: http://www.siliconrepublic.com/comms/item/16254-move-to-ipv6-critical-as-in [Accessed 2 April 2014].Nuasoft (2014) 'Irish Internet Usage Statistics' [Online] Nuasoft Available from: http://www.nua.ie/surveys/ [Accessed 2 April 2014]Weckler (2014) “Streaming services push Internet usage in Ireland by 75%” [Online]. Independent.ie. Available from: http://www.independent.ie/business/technology/streaming-services-push-irish-internet-use-up-by-75pc-30080200.html [Accessed 2 April 2014]. Wikipedia (2013)' Internet in the Republic of Ireland' [Online]. Wikipedia Available from: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Internet_in_the_Republic_of_Ireland [accessed 2 April 2014] .