If you're from Donegal, Clare or Kerry chances are your voice controlled home assistants like Apple's Siri and Amazon's Echo won't understand what you're saying.

A new survey by Pure Telecom says one third of Irish accents baffle the smart technology.

People from Donegal (39%), Clare (36%) and Kerry (33%) are only occasionally, or never, understood by their digital companions.

But other counties have less complaints when it come to understanding the local lingo.

The best-spoken in the country, according to robots, live in Laois, with 47% claiming to ‘always’ be understood by their assistant. That is followed by Roscommon and Carlow (39%); and Limerick (35%).

More than a quarter of those surveyed said they worry about personal privacy when using virtual assistants and are concerned about constantly being listened to.

The biggest benefits users report are availability at any time, hands free facility and being entertaining to use.

A whopping 84% of Irish people have used a digital assistant with over a quarter claiming they help make them more informed and more organised,

The negatives are pretty low, 12% think they made them lazier and 7% more anti-social. 

Commenting on the findings, Paul Connell, CEO, Pure Telecom, said: 

“As the survey shows, digital assistants are becoming more and more commonplace in our daily lives.

While Irish people may have issues being understood by their assistant, their always-on availability has driven widespread use for tasks like streaming music and organising calendars."