Press Releases

The mysterious MSE “Liaison Committee” So we in IrelandOffline have asked some questions about this mysterious Liaison Committee that was first mentioned in the Smyth report and these are the answers we received: Who is on the Committee? The Liaison Committee was set up in accordance with the terms of the Concession Agreements to facilitate ongoing communications between the MSE and the Contracting Authority in order to achieve efficient delivery of the services as required under the Concession Agreement. The committee consists of representatives of the Department, a representative of the Local Authorities (Chief Executive) and representatives of the Concessionaire (enet)....

The National Broadband Plan – the process from hell Eamonn Wallace, spokesman for IrelandOffline said “Once again, last week, we witnessed a government in chaos. First they ask an independent auditor of the NBP to produce a report stating that the process that he has been involved in since the beginning is perfectly fine and no “damage has been done” and no-one did anything “wrong”, while generally this may be considered to be a correct assessment it actually does open up many more questions than it actually answers…it’s almost like the report’s conclusions were drawn up in advance and the...

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...

IrelandOffline received yesterday’s news with some dismay Eamonn Wallace, chair of IrelandOffline noted: “It seems Minister Naughten, having talked the talk of machismo, has now capitulated to legal threats from Eircom. There maybe a different spin on it of course, but a plan that was put together by better minds than his has now been seriously compromised. The short of it is that Eircom has laid claim to the most lucrative parts of the NBP intervention area, leaving behind a thinly scattered mess of one-off houses. It is doubtful if what remains is viable even at an operating level; meaning...

So after an enormously long wait and endless delays (2 years of work) the Department of Communications have finally delivered, we’ll resist the temptation to voice our initial reactions to this opus but anyway here is the map: http://broadband.gov.ie/ Here is the rationale and methodology behind this all: http://www.dcenr.gov.ie/NR/rdonlyres/DA48DCDA-A8D1-47BC-B91E-CE12B6DAB8E1/0/NBP_Mapping_Consultation2.pdf We’ll issue a Press Release as soon as our analysts have concluded their studies of these documents. If you have any comments or observations please feel free to contact us.