Welcome to the new regional champions!

vinnyfitz

From Noel's announcement this evening
Who are these people?
How were they selected?
What is the basis of their remuneration or are they working pro bono or could it be that they are established public servants being relaunched/rebranded/reinvented for PR reasons?

Minister for Communications, Marine & Natural Resources, Mr Noel Dempsey, TD, has announced the appointment of six regional coordinators under the County & Group Broadband Scheme. The role of the regional coordinators is to help bring broadband to 150 communities by promoting the awareness of the County & Group Broadband Scheme and by providing advice on the preparation of proposals. The coordinators will also match interested communities with broadband service providers and will help to build multi-community proposals to bring broadband services to large parts of counties.
The Minister stated that 'the regional GBS coordinators will act as a key link between the Department's scheme and communities that want to bring a broadband service to their own areas'.
The new regional GBS coordinators have been appointed in six of the regions outside of Dublin. These regions face great difficulties getting an affordable broadband service because of their low populations. The County & Group Broadband Scheme is designed to promote the investment in broadband access infrastructure in these regions by contributing grant aid of up to 55% of the infrastructure costs. ?4 million has been earmarked for the second phase of the scheme, out of a total multi-annual budget of ?25 million. The Minister added that 'the potential of this initiative is enormous, if fully tapped by communities, as over 100,000 people could get broadband access under it'.
In response to a high level of interest from communities across the county, the Minister has agreed to extend the deadline for submission of proposals to 28 April 2005. Commenting on the new deadline, the Minister said that 'communities and local authorities have asked for some more time to put together larger, aggregated group broadband projects and the Department is going to facilitate these initiatives'.
Details of the new regional coordinators are given in the table attached. More information about the scheme and the contact details for each of the coordinators is available on the website of the Group Broadband Scheme: www.gbs.gov.ie.

Name of Regional GBS Coordinator by Region and County
Region: Border Regional AuthorityResponsible for Counties: Cavan, Donegal, Leitrim, Louth, Monaghan, Sligo Co-ordinator: Mr Paddy Birch
Region: Mid-East Regional AuthorityResponsible for Counties: Kildare, Meath, WicklowCo-ordinator: Mr Joe Tighe
Region: Mid-West Regional Authority Responsible for Counties: Clare, Limerick, Tipperary (North Riding)Co-ordinator: Mr Tom Kirby
Region: South-East Regional AuthorityResponsible for Counties: Carlow, Kilkenny, Tipperary (South Riding), Waterford, WexfordCo-ordinator: Ms Mary Wixted
Region: South-West Regional AuthorityResponsible for Counties: Cork, Kerry Co-ordinator: Ms Sinead Crowley
Region: West Regional Authority Responsible for Counties: Galway, Mayo, RoscommonCo-ordinator: Ms Caitriona McQuillan
Ends

damien

A quick google:


Paddy Birch, Broadband Coordinator, Border Regional Authority, Border.ie

Mr. Joe Tighe, Project Manager, ‘Communities Online Together’ - http://www.dunboyne.ie/latest_news/cot.html

Mr. Tom Kirby. Mid-West Regional Authority.

Mary Wixted, Regional Group Broadband Project Co-ordinator

Ms. Sinead Crowley Project Manager South West Broadband Initiative South West Regional Authority Innishmore Ballincollig Co. Cork

Caitriona McQuillan Galway County Council

They all appear to be County Council employees.

Sponge Bob

There is another one in the west as well . I note that the Govt has ' activated ' the (strictly speaking) non existent regional authorities as their employment umbrella .

This may be something to do with EU Regional funding.

Mr_Man

I've already been contacted by the co-ordinator for Wicklow, so they seem to be hitting the ground running. Hopefully it will continue.

M.

joetighe

hi folks,
im a tad perplexed by some of the questions being asked here ,
nevertheless the GBS is about bringing broadband to areas where it hasnt already come.
The Co-Ordinators are paid by the Regional Authorities to promote the scheme, advise communities, match communities with ISP's, aggregate applications, and check the validity of applications before they are submitted to the dept.
Im happy to be contacted at jtighe@meathcoco.ie to clarify my role and/or the scheme, and i'd be even happier to be contacted by individuals or groups ready to kick off a scheme in their area, and to advise on how to do so. Perhaps a public information meeting can be arranged in your area.
The initial activity is generally a community meeting or one individual collecting 25+ names to show interest in an area. From that the scheme can get moving and an ISP can be identified.
Please get in touch, this deadline closes 28th April although there will be more, and it takes ISP a few weeks to get an application together.
Regards,
Joe Tighe
Co-Ordinator for Kildare, Meath, Wicklow.
jtighe@meathcoco.ie

damien

Welcome to the forum Joe. It's good to see someone from the GBS here.