Dermot Ahern on TV3 Agenda

mike65

I missed most of it as I did'nt know he was on. The prog is repeated tonight at 12.50 am.

Mike.

DMT

I wanted to hurt him when he :
(a) started spouting eircon propaganda saying that even though line rental has gone up in price, phone calls have come down, so the overall bill has come down too
(b) said there's no demand for broadband in Ireland.


My response:
(a) Someone in eircon must have a swollen tongue from licking all the brown envelopes
(b) How can there be demand for broadband when it's overpriced and not available to most people...?

nahdoic

Originally posted by DMT
(a) Someone in eircon must have a swollen tongue from licking all the brown envelopes

Geeze. Be careful what accusations you make on a public forum that is more than likely browsed by these people.

But did he really say there is no demand for broadband?

voxpop

It was interesting but i didnt think the agenda host was tough enough on him, at some stages he couldnt even get a word in !

Delphi91

Originally posted by DMT
I wanted to hurt him when he :
(a) started spouting eircon propaganda saying that even though line rental has gone up in price, phone calls have come down, so the overall bill has come down too
...

You could drive an articulated truck through the hole in that argument.

I'm with UTV for internet and calls. Therefore, I don't make any calls on the Eircom network. So, any drop in Eircom calls is totally useless to me. Any rise, however, in line rental effects me.

So, contrary to Mr. Ahern's statement, my overall bill has gone up!

And I began to think that this guy might not have been the total plonker that other ministers have been when it comes to telecommunication.

Mike

DMT

Originally posted by nahdoic
Geeze. Be careful what accusations you make on a public forum that is more than likely browsed by these people.

That's an insinuation (that someone is licking envelopes) not an accusation...

But did he really say there is no demand for broadband?

Yes. Then David McWilliams went onto say broadband should be a supply-led service not a demand-led service (made a good point but completely missed the obvious).

sceptre

Just watched it and frankly I'm rather worried.

Ahern is somehow under the impression that we've a state of the art telecoms system, making comments like "we were one of the first in Europe to have digital communications" (assuming he's talking about exchanges going digital, the last one went digital in 1989 IIRC[1]). Yesterday's news as mcWilliams said. Actually, slightly older than yesterday's news, news from the decade before the last one in fact. And that Eircom have "enabled" 900 thousand lines for broadband. Well that's all right then, there must be no demand then.

McWilliams certainly got the idea that Valentia are more interested in bleeding the company before floatation and don't have any apparent interest in investing in the network at all. Ahern is somehow under the impression that a bigger cheque every month will automatically result in the Eircom board putting this extra free cash into the network. No regulation needed, no effective watchdog needed, they'll do it because they want to.

By actually backing up the basket of prices and directly contradicting the implication he made the other day (that this was the potential problem in the first place), he's managed to prove beyond a shadow of a doubt that he just doesn't get it at all.

Whole thing read like an Eircom press release (long on opinion, short on facts as well). Or whatever they prepared when they walked into the Dail the other day.

Dermot, you've swallowed this hook line and sinker. You're back in my idiot box. An objective person (keeping in mind that I'm not, I'm a subjective interested party) could be forgiven for imagining one of the three following scenarios after watching the interview: Ahern is slow, Ahern has been fooled by people who use big words or someone in the Department has been given a hefty bribe. I'm inclined towards the second possibility but I can't blame anyone for making up their own mind.


[1] In any case it's not recent. Or relevant.

BoneCollector

So why dont we all send him some emails educating him in the errorcom of his ways

i know i will

DMT

There's also the fact that, while Ireland may have become one of the first countries in Europe to "go digital" 14 years, it did so under state ownership. Since privatisation, there's been a massive reduction in productivity and innovation thanks to eircon...

Mr_Man

with many of the posters who have gone before. I had thought that we finally had a minister worth something, but after watching in disbelief last night's performance, I have to conclude I was wrong. It could have been McRedmond and the words would have been exactly the same; except for the last question where McWilliams suggested the move by the Minister last week was motivated by a desire to get back at Sir Tone after his rags had been harsh on the government.

Everyone knows the real reason Dermot moved was to provide a fig leaf for the government during the Local and EU elections against the public fury which will be provoked by the Eircom refloatation.

Sad, Sad, Sad

M.

ednwireland

just written to dermot ahern to ask why when i live in range of an enabled exchange my line won't be repaired to take broadband. won't lose any sleep over getting any reply though

eircomtribunal

Just watched it and frankly I'm rather worried.

Transcript of Dermot's AGENDA interview is Here.
Worth a look and a read.

Peter

sceptre

Sterling work, Peter, thanks. It'll certainly be of use to people who didn't manage to see it (or like me, who will read it every once in a while if they're feeling too happy for any given reason)

shinzon

DEAR GOD


:rolleyes:

Shin

LFCFan

What a pile of Tosh! I actually thought Dermot Aherne was the man to turn things around but he sounded more like an €ircon salesman.

derrie

Amazing - How can someone be the minister for communications when they clearly don't understand the subject matter and the issues that they should be concerned with?

WezzyB

Speaking of Dermot Ahern on TV,
I saw an item on UTV Live, it was about the Dundalk by-pass and they had Dermo on talking about the road and under his name they had 'Roads Minister'....

Ripwave

Originally posted by derrie
Amazing - How can someone be the minister for communications when they clearly don't understand the subject matter and the issues that they should be concerned with?

Have you ever looked at who's in cabinet? Bertie picks the people first, (based on loyalty, popularity and geography, not necessarily in that order) and only after he's decided who's going to be in the cabinet does he assign the ministries. Ability isn't considered a requirement.