So you think you know what “rural” means?
Here’s a short piece on the Western Development Commission (WDC) website that explores the meaning of “rural” and what “rural” means, worth a read. What is Rural?
IrelandOffline
What we know (so far)…
Is the NBP now dead? Today we discuss a project which is shrouded in secrecy and now a political controversy about the suitability of a Minister having private chats with the remaining bidder for the NBP has erupted, the big imponderable question is “where next”? Here’s a short recap on what we know so far, a more detailed document is available here and is available as a separate post on our website Secrecy The freedom of information process is fundamentally flawed, questions are often met with open hostility and sometimes even threats of litigation for allegedly making “vexatious and frivolous...
What we know
On November 23rd 2016 Mr Naughten, Mr Donohoe Mr, McManus (Chairman Eircom) and Mr Robert Watt (SG Dept PER) had meetings in the Department of Public Expenditure. FOI’s to DPER seeking a note of the meetings turned up nothing – apparently no notes exist. Separately we asked DCCAE by means of a series of questions submitted to the Joint Oireachtas Committee whether any of their officials had attended that meeting with Mr Naughten. They responded that none had. Shortly after the November meeting, history relates that the Eircom 300K program throttled-up and the subsequent agreement dated April 4th 2017 confirms...
Results of an AIE request
Today IrelandOffline are publishing the results of an AIE request for records associated with the Department’s approval of the Eircom 300K network announced on 7th April 2017. But first a bit of context. The so-called 300K network was first proposed by Eircom on June 4th 2015. Subsequently technical and financial criteria were established by which to judge the credibility of ‘planned investments’ such as this one. Minister Alex White dismissed Eircom’s plan in December of that year. The same 300k premises scheme was reactivated in 2016, it seems that those same narrow tests were reapplied. It could have been expected...
MANS: The world’s longest running mid-term review
MANS: The world’s longest running mid-term review In May IrelandOffline sought two reports (including RFTs and project briefs) from the Department concerning the Metropolitan Area Networks (MANS). These are middle-mile fibre investments made by the State in 2005 and 2009 to provide connectivity for ISPs in 22 towns in Phase I, and 94 towns in Phase II. Enasc teoranta or ‘enet’ won the concession for both phases, respectively in 2004 and 2009, each to run for 15 years. Timeline The ‘mid-term’ review started sometime in 2015. Towards the end of that year the Department started to interview enet’s customers to...