Why so many local councils?

Because Ireland's open data programme has had strong uptake among local authorities, and councils hold the operational data — planning, roads, amenities — that residents most often want.

How often does it change?

Continuously. Some datasets update daily, others annually, and the feed is ordered by whichever changed most recently.

Yes. It comes from data.gov.ie, refreshed through this site's pipeline. Nothing is invented or simulated, and if the source cannot be reached the saver reports that instead of drawing something plausible.

Does it cost anything or need an account?

No. Every screensaver here is free, runs in the browser and needs no sign-up. This one uses a public API that requires no key.

Does a recent date mean the data is new?

Not always. The date reflects when the catalogue record was changed, which may be a metadata edit or a refresh of an existing table rather than newly collected figures.

Can I download the data from the saver?

The saver only shows the listing. To get the files, search the title on the portal, where each dataset page has its resources and licence.

Who runs data.gov.ie?

The Open Data Team in the Department of Public Expenditure, Infrastructure, Public Service Reform and Digitalisation runs it; the datasets themselves come from the public bodies that publish on it.

Ireland, Published Screensaver

The Ireland, Published screensaver streams datasets from Ireland's national open data portal in update order, with the publishing organisation alongside. It runs in the browser with nothing to install; press ESC to exit.

How the Ireland, Published screensaver works

The saver reads data.gov.ie, refreshed through this site's pipeline.

No account and no key: the request goes straight from your browser, or from this site's own refreshed copy of the feed where the source does not permit browser access.

Values are drawn on a canvas that resizes with the window, so it works on a laptop or a wall display.

If the source is unreachable the saver says so on screen rather than showing stale numbers as though they were current.

What is on data.gov.ie

data.gov.ie is Ireland’s open data portal, which publishes Irish public sector data in open, reusable formats. It is run by the Open Data Team in the Department of Public Expenditure, Infrastructure, Public Service Reform and Digitalisation, and it lists well over twenty thousand datasets from well over a hundred publishers. Public bodies such as the Central Statistics Office publish there. As with most national portals the site holds descriptions and links, while the files themselves often sit on the publisher’s own servers.

The portal is powered by CKAN, an open-source data portal platform used by many governments, which gives each dataset a title, description, publishing organisation, tags and a list of downloadable resources. A dataset can carry several files, such as one per year or one per format, so the file count beside a listing says how many are attached, not how big the data is.

Ordering by update time means the stream reflects housekeeping as much as new publishing. A statistics office that refreshes a table each quarter will keep reappearing, while a body that uploads once and never touches it will not show up again. The result is a view of which organisations are actively maintaining data, not a ranking of importance.

A worked example

Each row names a dataset and the body that published it. The feed is dominated by local authorities rather than central government, which gives it an unusually granular texture — a county council's parking data, a city's tree register, a borough's planning applications. It is the state visible at the level people actually meet it.

Settings & tips

Accent and Background recolour the display without changing the data.
Add it to a Multi-view grid to watch it alongside other live savers.
Press ESC at any time to leave fullscreen.

Frequently asked questions

Why so many local councils?: Because Ireland's open data programme has had strong uptake among local authorities, and councils hold the operational data — planning, roads, amenities — that residents most often want.
How often does it change?: Continuously. Some datasets update daily, others annually, and the feed is ordered by whichever changed most recently.
Is this real data?: Yes. It comes from data.gov.ie, refreshed through this site's pipeline. Nothing is invented or simulated, and if the source cannot be reached the saver reports that instead of drawing something plausible.
Does it cost anything or need an account?: No. Every screensaver here is free, runs in the browser and needs no sign-up. This one uses a public API that requires no key.
Does a recent date mean the data is new?: Not always. The date reflects when the catalogue record was changed, which may be a metadata edit or a refresh of an existing table rather than newly collected figures.
Can I download the data from the saver?: The saver only shows the listing. To get the files, search the title on the portal, where each dataset page has its resources and licence.
Who runs data.gov.ie?: The Open Data Team in the Department of Public Expenditure, Infrastructure, Public Service Reform and Digitalisation runs it; the datasets themselves come from the public bodies that publish on it.

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