Minister puts on the green shirt.

clohamon

Misty-eyed interview with RCRWireless which confirms the view that DCENR sees its role primarily as a cheerleader for industry.


Irish Government and ICT – A symbiotic relationship

While many countries understand the undeniable importance of the ICT sector to GDP and the local economy, few countries take such an active or important role in the promotion of industry like Ireland does.



With organizations like Enterprise Ireland, the IDA (Industrial Development Agency) and Forfás (the national policy advisory board for enterprise, trade, science, technology and innovation) no one could accuse the Irish government of sitting on the fence when it comes to pushing its local tech talent.



Even inside government proper, Ireland’s tech agenda is being rigorously pursued, as we learned from a recent interview with the country’s Minister for Communications, Energy & Natural Resources, Pat Rabbitte.


Rabbitte’s ministry cuts to the heart of the economic issues that confront Ireland in telecom and energy, with considerable focus being placed on Ireland’s National Broadband Scheme, which already brings coverage to some 98% of the total population.


Around 12% of broadband requirement has been provided by the scheme, which steps in to fill the gaps left by the commercial broadband market.


The remaining 2%, Rabbitte told us, remains uncovered due to topography and/or distance from coverage areas, meaning certain individual households remain unconnected, hence the new drive for a rural broadband scheme aimed at identifying those premises and inducing a provider to provide service for them.


“Long before the European objective of 2013, Ireland was working towards universal coverage,” Rabbitte told us adding confidently, “We will have 100% penetration, or as close to 100%.” 


Of course, there will certainly be differences in terms of bandwidth and speeds from urban to rural areas, says the minister, who believes connectivity is something of a right akin to electricity, but the important thing is to have some sort of a connection in place.


“Without access to broadband, people are really excluded,” explained Rabbitte, noting that the technology had the capacity to create new jobs and new industries within Ireland’s burgeoning knowledge economy. 



Providing broadband access to Ireland’s entire population also goes some way toward leveling out the issues of the digital divide said Rabbitte. “Broadband has a tremendous capacity to narrow the gap in so many ways,” he asserted, noting that this was especially true in a country like Ireland which has a high density of population on the East coast and lower density on the West coast. “The availability of broadband provides the possibility of indigenous industrial development at a local level.

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These indigenous companies, spawned from the presence of some of the world’s leading ICT multinationals with an Irish presence are key, Rabbitte explained. “Ireland at the moment is confronting other difficulties, we have had a construction bubble, as a result, we have a banking crisis, it is proving very painful. But the road to recovery really is dependent on us ushering in the knowledge economy, hence why broadband is so important,” he said.



While coverage is becoming close to ubiquitous, however, Rabbitte does admit that access to broadband is not the only concern. “Reliability is the big issue that comes back to us [from talking to broadband users in Ireland],” admitted the minister. “Yes, there is unhappiness about bandwidth in parts of rural Ireland, there is no doubt about that, we have to enhance that and we are working on that in partnership with industry,” he claimed.



Indeed, government working in partnership with private sector providers is the norm rather than the exception in Ireland, with a number of state companies working hand in hand with private firms to increase the speed and reliability of the networks.



The next generation broadband taskforce, for instance, is essentially a committee, chaired by the minister, but where the participants are the CEOs of all the lead companies in Ireland. “We work through what their plans are for the next three to five years. We identify the gaps that are left with the state, and then the state decides what it has to bring to the party,” he said, emphasizing the good working relationship and cooperation where economies of scale apply. “We find that it works well, the partnership model.
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Another important factor to bear in mind, said Minister Rabbitte, was that next year the Irish television system would make the switch from analogue to digital terrestrial and that in that switch off there would be a significant digital dividend “because spectrum, quality spectrum, will become available.” 


Unlike the US or the UK, Ireland doesn’t need to fight off the military when it comes to spectrum allocation, so all of the freed up analogue TV spectrum will be up for broadband grabs.


That’s not the only plus Ireland boasts when it comes to being the perfect tech incubator. “There are some advantages to being a small country, for instance agility and access [to government],” said Minister Rabbitte commenting on why big foreign companies liked to set up shop on the island.



“The road to recovery for Ireland is really dependent on us being at the leading edge of technological development. With these lead companies, it is essential that we keep up with their development and facilitate their path as much as possible,” expounded Rabbitte.


“The old industries are gone, they won’t come back, we can’t compete any more at a low level manufacturing level, but we have other additions that we can bring to the party,” he continued, alluding to Ireland’s low 12.5% corporate tax rate as well as its flexible, well educated, multilingual, dedicated workforce. “We see the technology companies as driving the recovery,” he re-iterated.


The economic woes have even provided the emerald isle with something of a cloud with a silver lining, explained the Minister, claiming the troubles had made Ireland more competitive and willing to act as a technological test-bed. A good example of this, he pointed out, was the Exemplar project for responding dynamically to data traffic demands, which the Irish government has undertaken along with local firms Intune Networks, Openet and Amartus.

bealtine

What a load of bollox

the_syco

bealtine wrote: »

What a load of bollox

Agreed. I stopped reading when I read

Rabbitte’s ministry cuts to the heart of the economic issues that confront Ireland in telecom and energy, with considerable focus being placed on Ireland’s National Broadband Scheme, which already brings coverage to some 98% of the total population.

Is he including Midband, ISDN, and super-fast dial-up in that 98% broadband figure? Or is he counting only Dublin?