One in five Irish people aged between 16 and 74 have never surfed the web, according to a EU-wide survey.
However Eurostat boffins pointed out that this figure has been halved from 42 per cent recorded in a similar poll carried out in 2006.
Sweden has the lowest number of people in the EU who have never used the Internet at five per cent while Romania had the highest at 54 per cent.
The share of Irish households with broadband internet connections rose from 13 per cent in 2006 to 65 per cent in 2011, a little below the EU average of 68 per cent.
Sweden had the highest rate of broadband internet connection at 86 per cent while Romania the lowest at 31 per cent.
Meanwhile it has emerged that half of businesses in Ireland now restrict use of social media sites such as Facebook and Twitter in the workplace because they fear viruses infecting their desktops.
A poll by IT firm Integrity Solutions also found that 43 per cent of bosses believe that online Christmas shopping at work hits staff productivity at this time of the year.
Looking ahead to 2012, major IT security concerns identified by firms are data loss, cloud computing security and compliance with Irish and EU regulations.
Integrity Solutions boss Eoin Goulding said: "Firms need to put in the right security policies in place so that the danger of cyber criminals can be minimised or avoided completely."