Archive for the ‘Eamon Ryan’ Category

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National Broadband Scheme costs so far: €586k on outside consultants

Tuesday, July 15th, 2008

From here:

Before launch.

Deputy Pat Rabbitte asked the Minister for Communications, Energy and Natural Resources Information Zoom the position regarding the fees paid to date paid to outside consultants and consultancies for the national broadband scheme; the details of those payments; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [28013/08]

Minister for Communications, Energy and Natural Resources (Deputy Eamon Ryan): My Department has paid a total €586,000 in fees in respect of consultancy services for the National Broadband Scheme to date, details as follows:

Legal McCann Fitzgerald 255k
Financial & Technical Analysys Masons/ Norton 225k
Mapping ESRI 46k
ICT Expert 60k
Totals 586k

Posted in Eamon Ryan, irishblogs | 2 Comments »

Govt Report: Halt building new Metropolitan Area Networks, many should not have happened

Friday, July 11th, 2008

Quick Summary of the Summary:
1. 5 Metropolitan Area Networks built and still unused.
2. Halt new MANs being built.
3. The planning for MANs was dodgy.
4. Some of the MANs should be shut down but we can’t or we’ll be sued

All in here 93 page PDF doc.

2. This review recommends that the rollout of MANs in those towns for which Phase 2 MANs are planned but which have not yet started work (or have not yet entered legally binding contracts), should be halted pending a formal case by case evaluation.

3.

The review also found that the planning and selection process behind the MANs were less than fully comprehensive. While there was a substantial amount of analysis
behind the concept (analysis that was borne out by the effectiveness of the MANs in certain circumstances), the selection process used in deciding which town would receive a Phase 1 MAN was not sufficiently thorough.

The lack of appropriate baseline data, and the nature of the selection procedure for the Phase 1, and particularly for the Phase 1A, MANs, meant that a number of inappropriate locations were selected.

4. Any future programme should have an open and transparent mechanism by which it can be closed with a minimum of legal and financial implications for the State, even if that involves a mid life termination clause in contracts.

Well Eamon Ryan when he was in opposition called the MANs into question, this report commissioned before he started his Ministerial job seems to back up what he was saying. Handy bit of money saved here. (Though they were already on hold).

Many of the phase 1 and 1a MANs were built for nothing but political gain with the promise it would bring broadband to voters.

Posted in Eamon Ryan, irishblogs, technology | 6 Comments »

Minister Eamon Ryan’s Broadband Promises

Thursday, July 3rd, 2008

In summary, the ten Government commitments are:

1. Government will target capital investment of €435m to address the digital divide
2. Universal broadband coverage in Ireland by late 2009 / early 2010
3. 100 Mbits per second broadband connectivity to be introduced to secondary schools on a phased basis
4. Future investment will be determined in accordance with value for money review of the Metropolitan Area Networks (MANs)
5. Ensure Ireland’s continued high level of international connectivity
6. Major public infrastructure projects will have to install ducting at the construction phase. Government will establish a one stop shop to provide service providers with flexible and open access to existing and future ducting infrastructure
7. New premises will be required to install open access fibre connections where practicable
8. Maintenance of the regulatory framework necessary for fair and transparent competition across a range of platforms. Allocation of spectrum to encourage trialling and development of flexible new mobile technologies
9. Use of Government purchasing power in order to stimulate demand, create economies of scale and better public services
10. Establishment of a specialised research programme to monitor developments

1. Let’s see how much is really spent, sounds to be like fantastic number playing going on here. Is this their annual telecoms spend being used?
2. Universal Satellite Coverage is what they mean. Half the schools in this country are on satellite. Proper wired or wireless broadband is not going to be ubiquitous in 5 years let alone this ambition. And even then it won’t be the broadband the rest of the OECD has. It’s mobile dialup people have these days and the Government call it mobile broadband.
3. A few schools are already connected to the Metropolitan Area Networks. Fantastic. BUT half the schools in the country are on satellite (as above), how are they going to even get close to a MAN to get those connections. D4 and private schools can rejoice. Rural schools… tough. Show me the plan on how this will be done.
4. A waste of time looking into this. The Govt are not going to slam their own investments.
5. That’s paying the fucking bills Minister That’s like saying we’ll continue to have the lights turned on because we put 50p in the meter.
6. Brilliant. Brilliant. Well done. When does this start?
7. Again brilliant.
8. The regulator is a mess, it needs to be replaced with a regime that gives a damn about consumers and business and not keeping the large telcos happy. Oh and not take every issue as being a personal attack. Bring in ofcom.
9. Brilliant. Well done. Go team Eamo.
10. You mean a PR FUD team? Have we not enough?

Posted in business, Eamon Ryan, irishblogs | 24 Comments »

National Broadband Scheme – Strange Bedfellows

Monday, June 30th, 2008

While rumour on Boards.ie is that the National Broadband Scheme is canceled, despite providers being brought this far, heres some interesting (for me) data about it. Just looking at more FOI’d documents from the Department of Communications and the list of companies and consortiums who applied for the National Broadband Scheme tender:

Wirefree
Eircom
BroadNet (Motorola & Azotel Consortium)
3 Ireland
BT, Wirefree & Avanti Consortium
Avanti Broadband
Crimson Tide
Clearwire, Motorola Consortium
IFA, Motorola Consortium
UPC, Enet, BT Consortium
Smart, Enet, Last Mile, Permanet Consortium

Posted in business, Eamon Ryan, irishblogs | 2 Comments »

National Broadband Scheme map is bollox – says DCMNR to EU (kinda)

Thursday, June 26th, 2008

Gotta love FOI requests.
Via this FOI (PDF)

So the takeaway points this time round:

1. The Dept of Comms told the EU they didn’t believe a word about future rollouts by broadband providers.
2. They suggested to the EU that the National Broadband Tender should address either (a) areas where providers said they wouldn’t go to AND areas where they said they would (but where the Dept of Comms thought they were telling porkies) or (b) address the definite no go areas first, give the providers a cooling off period and then push the tender to these areas six months later.
3. The EU agreed with the Dept of Comms to go with option (b).
4. Why has the Department of Comms never told us of the cooling off period part of their plan? Is it still part of their plan because the utterings from Minister Eamon Ryan seem to suggest these “blue” or “grey” areas are not being addressed.
5. Is the Dept delaying the NBS because they can’t afford to cover all the bad areas and are delaying til they have the cash and til more of the “blue” areas turn out to have broadband?

This is the Department of Communications talking to the EU about the National Broadband Scheme and the map of areas without broadband. This was 2007:

Page 9:

To identify where broadband services are not being provided by the market the NBS team, comprised of members of the DCMNR and ComReg undertook the following comprehensive mapping process:

Step One
The DCMNR and ComReg contacted service providers and requested details of their current and planned broadband coverage. Representaive samples of the following categories of service providers were contacted:

Licensed fixed service providers
licensed wireless service providers
known licensed exempt wireless service providers
mobile service providers
GBS service providers

Step Two
The data received from service providers was inserted on a broadband coverage map. In order to achieve as complete and accurate map as possible, the NBS team then consulted with the Irish Regional Authorities to ask that they confirm as far as possible, the broadband coverage information provided in the maps and that the list of all service providers included in the mapping process was comprehensive. The Regional Authorities were requested to provide any additional information on service providers in their specific areas.

Step Three
The additional service providers identified by the Regional Authorities were contacted by the DCMNR and details of the service providers current and future coverage plans were requested and included in the map.

Step Four
A number of geographic areas are excluded from the scope of the NBS as the DCMNR has determined that existing coverage is adequate and/or there are already serveral service providers in the area. As a consequence, the NBS will not address the following areas:

The 5 largest cities in the State (Cork, Dublin, Galway, Limerick, Waterford)
Areas within which telephone exchanges have been enabled for DSL, subject to a service radius of 4.5km
Areas served by wireless broadband provision, subject to (where appropriate) the service radius defined by licence requirements and having regard to topographical effects on wireless coverage.

The Indicative Map
The resulting broadband coverage map is the “indicative map”, please see Appendix C for the latest version of the map…

“grey areas” are currently unserved by broadband, but where service providers have indicated that they plan to provide broadband services in these regions in the foreseeable future

However they also tell the EU that they don’t believe a word about the rollout of broadband by these providers:

Pg 16

The DCMNR wishes to address the grey areas as it is, in its view, unlikely that service providers planned coverage will materialise. The DCMNR has grave concerns that, in some instances, where service providers have indicated that they will roll out afforable broadband services in a region, there is no evidence that such claims are based on commercial reality.

Now, next doc (pdf)

The Grey areas are now Blue areas it seems:

pg 8

According to the Irish authorities, consumers and businesses in the “green” and “blue” areas are still lacking access to broadband services since they first became generally available in Ireland approximately 5 years ago. In order to remedy this situation the DCENR has informed operators of its approach for dealing with “blue” areas: services providers will be given a reasonable timefreame to roll out broadband services to these areas, after which any unserved areas at that time will be supported by the NBS. The DCENR considers this approach to be reasonable and proportionate and one that balances the needs of consumers against those of service providers.

The “blue” areas will, therefore, be included in the scope of the NBS from the outset and the NBS procurement will seek to keep an option to address these areas. However, the provision of broadband to the “blue” areas via the NBS contract will not take place until the beginning of Q3 2008. Up to the end of Q2 2008, where the DCENR is presented with clear evidence that a “live broadband service” is being provided to users in blue areas, the service provider’s particular service footprint will be removed from the NBS coverage requirements. The Irish authorities have put in place a notification mechanism for operators to inform them about updated service footprints, i.e. the geographic areas where there they roll out broadband. A mechanism to give effect to this approach will also be built into the NBS procurement process and service contract.

Posted in business, Eamon Ryan, irishblogs, technology | 1 Comment »

Gotta love Freedom of Information requests

Thursday, June 12th, 2008

Tis the season for FOI requests innit? Another one from the DCENR (pdf) where Finian McGrath writes to Eamon Ryan and asks him to have a phonebox removed from a neighbourhood in Marino. The forwarded letter from the constituent is funny but tragic.

From what I have seen the phone box serves the following purposes in descending order.
1. Target for throwing practice – which results in glass shattered all over the street and the footpath.
2. Public Toilet.
3. Drinking Den and subsequent dumping spot for Vodka bottles
4. Meeting place for drunken youths
5. Phone box

Posted in Eamon Ryan, irishblogs | 3 Comments »

Caught Lying – Dept of Comms lie to RTE’s Prime Time and more

Thursday, June 12th, 2008

So I did more FOI requests and found yet more interesting stuff. Ironically after mentioning before what one can find on the DCENR website, the Irish Times scooped me to my scoop and have an article about the info in the docs today.

In summary:

  • The DCENR deliberately misled Prime Time about the resources for the National Broadband Scheme for their investigation on Feb 14th.
  • Until Feb 2008 there was no fulltimer in DCENR assigned to the National Broadband Tender.
  • One of the only two people working on it left and was replaced in February by an existing DCENR staffer, all that experience and knowledge is gone.
  • For the tender to actually work from July onwards, there needs to be 3 more staff which it seems have not been hired.

    • If you go through these documents (which cost me around €150 btw, so much for Freedom of Information!) you can see this as a story of a few REALLY GOOD people in the Department of Communications doing their best to actually get something done in regards to broadband and massive stupidity and bureaucracy are getting in the way.

    So Prime Time asked the DCENR about lack of resources for the NBS, this is what the Dept sent to them:
    On page 3 of this pdf:

    Dated 14th Feb 2008

    NBS Steering Committee

    The National Broadband Scheme (NBS) is led by a ten person Steering Committee, charied by DCENR’s Asst Secretary, Mr. Peter O’Neill who had overall responsibility for Communications Policy within the Department.

    It yammers on about other stuff about the Committee and makes it out like a lot of people are involved but further down we see that a Dept. official points out two non Department staff ARE the NBS.

    NBS Working Group
    The NBS Working Group (WG) is chaired by Mr. Ken Spratt, Principal, Communications Development Divison, DCENR. The WG also includes Dr. Yvonne McCarthy, Analyst DECNR, and Mr. Eric Tomkins, ComReg. Both Dr. McCarthy and Mr. Tomkins are full-time members of the Working Group.

    The WG is advised by Analysis Mason Group on the technical, economic and commercial aspects

    We now take a jump back in time to when a new guy took over the section and tried to get stuff done:
    Page 5:

    03 August 2006:

    “Staffing issues are all tied up in decentralisation programme – in essence we cannot get staff from outside unless they sign up to go to Cavan and there are simply little or no volunteers for that. We are fast approaching major difficulties throughout the department and will be reaising these matters with finance in near future”

    18 months later, has much changed? No.

    Page 16 and Page 17

    Dated January 11th 2008
    Summary
    1. Various recent developments have given rise to extreme pressure on existing staff within my area. Additionally, new divisional objectives for 2008 will require additional resources. Accordingly, I request (i) the filling of existing vacancies, with suitably competent staff, as soon as possible and (ii) the timely assignment of additional resources to attend to new work items. Requested:
    2 competent AOs and 1 competent EO immediately;
    May 2008 onwards: 1 competent EO, 1 competent CO plus additional resources required to implement any recommendations arising from the Next Generation Broadband Policy Paper.

    Recent Developments
    2. General: The existing bar on recruitment of new resources to the Department gave rise to staffing difficulties during 2007. In order to deliver on commitments, I had to resort to hiring consultants to fill two key AO roles ((i) Digital Hub/National Digital Research Centre and (ii) National Broadband Scheme.) I also had to use a Stagiaire in an EO role.

    …

    5. NBS: Again, due to the existing bar on recruitment of new resources to the Department, I have no civil servant working on the National Broadband Scheme. (this was bolded by him) The work is being done by an AP level Analyst on secondment from ComReg and a former Stagiaire hired as a consultant (the hiring of the Stagiaire has given rise to an FOI request from the PSEU) The Analyst is due to take [REMOVED] in February and has been [REMOVED] she is unlikely to return before [REMOVED] begins. Her absence is requiring significant additional input to the NBS by me. A suitable replacement (with project management and telecoms experience) is required but is not available within the Department. The role will need to be filled as a matter of urgency.

    7. Anticpated developments with the National Broadband scheme
    A contract for the provision on broadband services under the National Broadband Scheme is expected to be signed in June 2008. Once a service provider has been appointed and begins to roll out services, the attention of the NBS section (Analyst on secondment and Consultant) will turn to monitoring the contract. [removed]
    The section will also need to handle matters that are relevant to the Department e.g. NBS customer queries, complaints, reps, PQs, briefing etc

    8. It is likely that the level of work will be quite intensive until such time as the scheme is completely rolled out (July 2008 to December 2009) and then begin to fall off from 2010 onwards. The section will require 1 AP (role will be filled by the Analyst until end 2009) and AO [removed], 1 EO and 1 CO

    On Page 49:

    I summarise below the staff changes which have impacted on my side since the end of 2007 –

    1 Niall bishop, who was working more than half of his time on the NDRC left the Department at the end of 2007 and I have not been assigned a replacement – this post was lost.

    2. Garry Purcell, who was working was the HEO in this area in 2007, was assigned out of this area to the NBS at the end of February 2008.

    3. While Roisin Garland, HEO, was assigned in Garry’s place in early March [REMOVED] and she was re-assigned to PAD in April 2008.

    End of Feb 2008 means after the Prime Time report. So what we have is the Dept telling Prime Time they are very well staffed for NBS when the reality was there were only two people and one of them was gone at the end of Feb and a new resource was only appointed later. That’s not fudging, that’s lying to Prime Time.

Posted in Eamon Ryan, irishblogs | 12 Comments »

eBay Ireland Boss sets up Broadband Lobby Group

Saturday, June 7th, 2008

In summary:
1. There is a new non-aligned and impartial broadband lobby group in Ireland. It had a working title of the “Broadband Crisis Advisory Board”
2. John McElligott from eBay had serious reservations about the International Advisory Forum on Broadband since two members had far too many ties with eircom, he later declined an invite to join by Eamon Ryan himself.
3. John McElligott wrote a 17 page report about broadband which cuts through the crap and should really be adopted by the Government. He slams mobile broadband figures being used to excuse our performance.
4. He also seems to have pissed off senior Civil Servants in DCENR and ComReg and they seem to be be conspiring with each other to see who else he was talking to about broadband.

Back in February Simon Coveney TD sent in an FOI request about the International Advisory Forum the Government were putting together. A bland enough request for documentation was asked for and given:

All documentation, including communications, relating to the setting up of an International Advisory Forum on Next Generation Broadband Networks by the Department, including but not restricted to, communications to potential and current members of the Forum. Also including, but not restricted to, any discussion about the terms of reference of the skill set required or any guidelines relating to the calibre of members the Department wished to acquire.

Part 1 of the request (PDF doc) threw up some interesting stuff, though on first glance of the first few pages, it doesn’t look it.

But on page 12 it gets interesting. The head of eBay in Ireland, John McElligott has emailed the DCENR after it appears he was asked to be on this International Advisory Forum. He asks why the DCENR omitted the fact that one of the people on the forum was previously on the board of eircom:

Dated December 18th 2007

Ken, how does Brian Thompson’s bio omit the fact that was was on the board of eircom when it was sold? Omitting such matters of potentially key importance will not increase the credibility of the group.

Now, there are some other bits and pieces too. On page 24-30 is the revelation that another advisory board is going to be launched after pushing from John McElligott:

Dated December 19th 2007

Thanks Ken:
Are you able to tell me about the NAF? Is this the customer body along the lines I proposed?

Reply:Dated December 19th 2007

John,
No, the NAF is separate from the proposed customer body. We have been working on a draft policy paper on NGN/NG Broadband for some time now. We have read many international reports and visited other Ministeries with a view to defining the optimum role for the Government in facilitating the roll out of NGNs. The role of the NAF is to critique the draft policy paper in advance of going out to consultation. The NAF will be made up of EU, US and Asian experts on telecoms and telecom policy and will also include the CEO of Forfas. Minister would like you to come on board an an Irish industry/customer representative. Once the report is published for consultation, we would see the customer body that you have proposed responding with appropriate comments. We could establish the customer body early in the New Year so that it has met and considered customer issues in advance of publication and be somewhat prepared before the paper is published.

and more back and forths:
Dated December 24th at 13.32

John,
In response to your recent emails: We are taking a two stage approach to the polic paper. The National Advisory Forum is being asked to consider and critique the initial draft. The paper will then be published for consultation with all stakeholders, including customers. Minister would welcome your participation in the Forum. An early responose would be appreciated.

If, for whatever reasons, you would prefer not to participate, Minister would welcome your contribution as a customer and we will revert to you at that stage. I wish to emphasise again the confidential nature of this matter.

Dated December 24th at 15.49

Ken:

Thank you for the note. I will revert to the Minister with a reply in the New Year.

Per my notes, I have concerns regarding the independence of a number of the proposed forum participants. I’m not sure if such credibility risk is in anyone’s interest, least of all the Department.

On page 43 and 44 we get a better picture of this proposed customer group:
Dated December 19th 2007, sent to Minister Eamon Ryan direct:

Minister:

Per our discussion, please find attached some options for individuals who could be part of a Customer-based broadband group:
A number of online entrepreneurs (e.g. a leader from one of Daft.ie, Myhome.ie, 3V.ie, Directski.com, Arguscarhire.com)
A few of the large online multinationals. These are Google, eBay, Amazon and PayPal
A Bank (e.g. AIB Internet Banking, Banking 365, Halifax.ie etc.)
Online travel company (eBookers.ie, AerLingus.com, RyanAir.com)
Government Departments that genuinely offer online services (e.g. Department of Finance – Motortax.ie)
A University or IT or both
Consumer Representative, though only if they have a fact base from their members e.g. NCA

Other points related to its “constitution”, which we believe are necessary to ensure success include:
* Create a body similar to the Motor Insurance Advisory Board where clear terms of reference and ambitious timetables are adopted for the implementation of the recommendations
*This group would be charged with getting to the bottom of what’s really needed to achieve the rollout of high quality broadband and plot a path to delivering this. It should identify the real issues holding up progress to date and describe plans with how to deal with them. The goal is that we end up with a connectivity infrastructure that is truly competitive. Perhaps is could be called the “Broadband Crisis Advisory Board” or BCAB.
* This group should ve very small, say 10 people. It should be convened by the Minister, with representatives from government, various agencies, education, and the commercial sector. It should be representative of the voice of the consumer, and they should be technology neutral.
* Our technology decision-making will be led by industry for a, many which are already in place. The BCAB should only refer to these where substantive issues relate to competitive issue and (c) above.
* The BCAB should represent the voice of the customer – those of us who use the infrastructure provided by the tech sector. It should also be non-partisan. Therefore, it should not include representatives of eircom, the ALTOs or ComReg, though they will likely present their views to the BACB. Recommendations from the BACB impact these parties.

Roll on to Part 2 of the request.

Nothing much up to page 18 though on that page it states:

John McElligott
eBay Ireland.
Invited on 19 December 2007, much querying on his part.

Page 19 has letter from Minister Eamon Ryan (dated January 21st 2008) asking John McElligott to join the forum. He eventually declines on Feb 8th.

Roll on to part 3 of the FOI PDF
Page 2 to page 24 of this document is great.

First we’ll go to around the page 21 mark:
A letter dated January 6th 2007 sent to Eamon Ryan and Micheál Martin

Thank you for the invitation to participate in the National Advisory Forum, which I received via Kenneth Spratt. I am considering being part of this, and will return to you with a decision in due course.

I would be delighted to participate in the forum if I felt it would make a difference. However, given what I have learned regarding the Forum to date, I am not yet convinced it is the right group. I have three specific concerns regarding its constitution:
1. Does the specific background of certain proposed Forum members inspire the desired level of confidence?
2. Are we missing the perspective of some leading markets which are our neighbours?
3. Can we boost the “customer perspective”?

Some colour on these three points:
1. Some of the proposed Forum participation may result ina reduction in external credibility. For example, one proposed participant has recently compeleted a study on models of separation – which was funded by eircom. Another participant is a former Chairman of eircom. Curiously, these two facts were omitted from the otherwise lengthy resumes I received. I am not in any way indicating that these participants would be in any way prejudiced or partial in their forum participation. However, given out need to establish credibility, I could well forsee a circumstance where the Forum’s credibility could be challenged.

2. Two of our closest neighbours (the UK and Netherlands) are stellar examples of leadership in Connectivity. Yet, curiously, the Forum has minimal participation of direct industry experience from these markets. This may be an oversight as (a) Political leadership is acknowledged to have contributed to UK leadership and (b) Northern Ireland has seen significant success, and it’s “only up the road”.

3. There may be a lack of “customers” in the forum. Per our meeting last month, I recommend adding more than just myself.

To this last point, I am currently convening a group of Irish eCommerce and eBusiness leaders to lobby in 2008 for greater progress in this arena. To date, the response to my outreach has been enthusiastic. Several of my peers believe that Market Failure is costing them dearly, and fear that current, lacklustre NGN plans will mean that Ireland continues to lag in the online sphere – possibly permanently.

Next up, is the email turning down the offer to be on the forum and annoucing the new broadband lobby group has been set up:
Dated February 5th 2008

Per our communication, I will refrain from participation in the NAF.

Two developments from my side are:
1. We eBay have engaged on this issue with a very wide range of stakeholders. Based on these discussions, I am happy to send you my thoughts on what can be done to address our issues. I intend to do this by the end of this week.
2. Today we convened a meeting of serveral business comprising a “Broadband Customer Group”. This group included 12 companies including (i) local eCommerce players and (ii) US Multis with an interestin this. We had a very fruitful and forthright discussion. In due course, we may reach out to you as a group.

On February 8th McElligott sent Minister Ryan and Minister Martin a 17 page document about Broadband in Ireland. It’s a fantastic document, well worth reading.

Part 4 of the FOI PDF contains mostly crap about hotel costs except for one email. An email where the an Assistant Secretary in the DCENR bitches about the head of eBay Ireland and his attitude and mention how they have been talking to ComReg about him too:

Dated January 7th 2008

I don’t understand John McElligott’s reaction to the invitation to sit on the Forum. Maybe it wasn’t such a good idea to invite him as he’s clearly not comfortable with the idea. Now that he’s setting up a lobby group perhaps his contribution might best be made during the public consultation stage. We have no other lobbyists on the NAF ( we didn’t consider him to be one in the formal sense when we invited him) and to include one will lead to calls from others to be included. I understand he has sent a questionnaire to ComReg, they’re to send me a copy and find out who else received it.

We’ll prepare a response for the Minister.

Posted in business, Eamon Ryan, irishblogs | 5 Comments »

Jonathon Porritt talks about developing a sustainable economy

Friday, May 30th, 2008

I got to see a very engaging, very funny and massively clever Jonathon Porritt give a talk yesterday on how we can develop a sustainable economy. It was organised by Minister Eamon Ryan and the DCENR who gave a very nice intro to Jonathon and the topic and he spoke unscripted, something you rarely see from a Minister. Hopefully the video will go up on his YouTube channel in a bit. I’d have live blogged it but there wasn’t any wireless broadband in the building…


Photo owned by bfick (cc)

Not that there was room to whip out my Macbook Air, the place was packed. Note: The Macbook Air is a green machine, sure it’s called the Air because that’s what it runs on, right? The room in No. 8 Stephen’s Green was full of people from many industries, Liz McManus from Labour was there too, ComReg were present too as well as the Energy Regulator. You’d have seen less suits at a funeral actually. Most of the Greens were there too including my fav blogging politician and the founder of the Eamon Ryan Facebook group too. No dinosaur though.

Overall Jonathon’s talk was eye-opening and you can tell he could talk for days on the subject without getting monotonous. I learned a good deal too. Only place in the world with a real Carbon Tax? British Columbia, money from it replaces lost revenue from corporation tax which they reduced and money from it also goes into health insurance I believe. People directly see where the carbon tax money goes. Clever. Very clever. Hopefully the slide deck for the talk will be made available too. Capitalism: As if the world matters is Jonathon’s latest book.

Green Indeed
Photo owned by Orin Optiglot (cc)

I didn’t have time to stay and mingle and enjoy the carbon neutral elderberry wine as I had to leg it back to the hotel and change and head to the awesome SoundCheck but next time if I’m accidently invited to another event like this I’ll definitely have to say hello to Ciarán and others.

Posted in Eamon Ryan, irishblogs | 1 Comment »

Eamon Ryan TV – The Youtube Channel

Tuesday, May 20th, 2008

A selection. Interesting screen caps. What’s the Sexiest Irish Politician (the Facebooks don’t lie) talking about would ya think, just from the screen caps? Yes Minister Ryan has a YouTube Channel and I think it’s a great idea. I think it would really rock if he answered other YouTuber questions on it too. Even some of the tougher ones.

Posted in Eamon Ryan, irishblogs, politics | Comments Off on Eamon Ryan TV – The Youtube Channel

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