Upcoming Events

National | Sci-Tech

no events match your query!

Blog Feeds

Anti-Empire

Anti-Empire

offsite link North Korea Increases Aid to Russia, Mos... Tue Nov 19, 2024 12:29 | Marko Marjanovi?

offsite link Trump Assembles a War Cabinet Sat Nov 16, 2024 10:29 | Marko Marjanovi?

offsite link Slavgrinder Ramps Up Into Overdrive Tue Nov 12, 2024 10:29 | Marko Marjanovi?

offsite link ?Existential? Culling to Continue on Com... Mon Nov 11, 2024 10:28 | Marko Marjanovi?

offsite link US to Deploy Military Contractors to Ukr... Sun Nov 10, 2024 02:37 | Field Empty

Anti-Empire >>

Human Rights in Ireland
Promoting Human Rights in Ireland

Human Rights in Ireland >>

Lockdown Skeptics

The Daily Sceptic

offsite link The Renewable Industry?s Dirty Little Secret Has Just Been Exposed Sat Jul 05, 2025 15:00 | Will Jones
The cat is out of the bag, says Diana Furchtgott-Roth. The vitriolic reaction to Congress?s plans to cut tax credits for renewables lays bare how 'cheap' wind and solar really are, and how subsidies are never enough.
The post The Renewable Industry’s Dirty Little Secret Has Just Been Exposed appeared first on The Daily Sceptic.

offsite link Britain is Turning into a Hotel for the World?s Criminals Sat Jul 05, 2025 13:00 | Will Jones
Britain risks becoming a hotel for?the world's criminals, warns Guy Dampier in the Telegraph, as new analysis?reveals that illegal small boat migrants are 24 times more likely to go to prison than the average Brit.
The post Britain is Turning into a Hotel for the World’s Criminals appeared first on The Daily Sceptic.

offsite link Germany is Not Being Honest About Who is Assaulting Children at Swimming Pools Sat Jul 05, 2025 11:00 | Eugyppius
In the last 10 years, Germany has welcomed a lot of ill-behaved young men for no discernible reason, and along the way citizens have had the dubious privilege of discovering whole new categories of crime, says Eugyppius.
The post Germany is Not Being Honest About Who is Assaulting Children at Swimming Pools appeared first on The Daily Sceptic.

offsite link Defunding Gavi is Good for Public Health Sat Jul 05, 2025 09:00 | Dr David Bell
The Left is in a panic over the defunding of the Gavi 'Vaccine Alliance'. But while the global vaccine industry has been lucrative, the biggest drivers of improved health are sanitation and nutrition, says Dr David Bell.
The post Defunding Gavi is Good for Public Health appeared first on The Daily Sceptic.

offsite link Pet Hates: Are Muslims in Britain Really Trying to Ban Dogs? Sat Jul 05, 2025 07:00 | Steven Tucker
Are British Muslims trying to ban dogs? It's a rumour that's been swirling for years ? and it's true that in Iran hardliners occasionally moot the idea. But in this case the rumour seems to be false, says Steven Tucker.
The post Pet Hates: Are Muslims in Britain Really Trying to Ban Dogs? appeared first on The Daily Sceptic.

Lockdown Skeptics >>

Voltaire Network
Voltaire, international edition

offsite link Will intergovernmental institutions withstand the end of the "American Empire"?,... Sat Apr 05, 2025 07:15 | en

offsite link Voltaire, International Newsletter N?127 Sat Apr 05, 2025 06:38 | en

offsite link Disintegration of Western democracy begins in France Sat Apr 05, 2025 06:00 | en

offsite link Voltaire, International Newsletter N?126 Fri Mar 28, 2025 11:39 | en

offsite link The International Conference on Combating Anti-Semitism by Amichai Chikli and Na... Fri Mar 28, 2025 11:31 | en

Voltaire Network >>

Broadband: Another Privatisation Mess

category national | sci-tech | press release author Friday October 19, 2018 22:10author by pbp - People Before Profit Report this post to the editors

Press Release - People Before Profit - 17th Oct 2018

Over half a million households in rural Ireland are missing out on broadband because of a disastrous privatisation policy.

Up to 1999, the telephone network was run by a state company, Telecom Eireann. But the Fianna Fail government decided to copy Margaret Thatcher and sell it off. Ever since then, disaster has piled on disaster.

Instead of providing long term investment to install broad band, a series of private owners simply asset stripped the company, which had been re-named Eircom.


By October 2010, for example, Ireland was ranked 29 out of 30 countries, ahead only of Mexico for broadband speed. Only a fifth of the population had access on that date.

Yet this disaster presented another opportunity for private companies to further blackmail the government.

Eir, which is the latest name for the company proposed, to charge €20 for every pole that the fibre optic cables would be hung on.

It was also allowed to cherry pick the easiest houses to connect and separate these out the more difficult ones.

The result as that only one private bidder, Enet, was left to negotiate a contract for the last half a million homes. It was actually backed by money from the state’s own Irish Infrastructure Fund which was set to take control of the company.

But suddenly Enet was downgraded to becoming only a supplier to a new consortium, Granahan McCourt. A Denis O Brien controlled company was then discovered to be part of the new consortium. They set about trying to squeeze even more money from the taxpayers for the contract.

Secret meetings between the former Minister for Communication, Denis Naughton, and the company’s chairperson, David McCourt, were all about getting these extra ‘incentives’.

Behind the whole sorry affair is a tale of greed for profit.

If the state retained control of its own telecommunications company, broadband would have been completed by now.

Yet again privatisation has proved a disaster.

We need a state owned company that completes the National Broadband plan in the interests of people – not profit

Related Link: http://www.pbp.ie/broadband-another-privatisation-mess/
© 2001-2025 Independent Media Centre Ireland. Unless otherwise stated by the author, all content is free for non-commercial reuse, reprint, and rebroadcast, on the net and elsewhere. Opinions are those of the contributors and are not necessarily endorsed by Independent Media Centre Ireland. Disclaimer | Privacy