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Public Inquiry
Interested in maladministration. Estd. 2005

offsite link RTEs Sarah McInerney ? Fianna Fail?supporter? Anthony

offsite link Joe Duffy is dishonest and untrustworthy Anthony

offsite link Robert Watt complaint: Time for decision by SIPO Anthony

offsite link RTE in breach of its own editorial principles Anthony

offsite link Waiting for SIPO Anthony

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Human Rights in Ireland
Indymedia Ireland is a volunteer-run non-commercial open publishing website for local and international news, opinion & analysis, press releases and events. Its main objective is to enable the public to participate in reporting and analysis of the news and other important events and aspects of our daily lives and thereby give a voice to people.

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Lockdown Skeptics

The Daily Sceptic

offsite link Sudanese Migrant Tries to Kidnap Schoolgirl Before Bystanders Intervene Wed Oct 15, 2025 13:00 | Will Jones
An illegal immigrant from Sudan attempted to kidnap a schoolgirl off the street in Swindon in a terrifying attack before bystanders heroically intervened.
The post Sudanese Migrant Tries to Kidnap Schoolgirl Before Bystanders Intervene appeared first on The Daily Sceptic.

offsite link UK Has Lost Control of its Borders, Says Home Secretary Wed Oct 15, 2025 11:22 | Will Jones
The UK has lost control of its borders, Home Secretary Shabana Mahmood has said, as she calls for "international cooperation" in a tacit admission that Britain has surrendered its sovereignty to foreign courts.
The post UK Has Lost Control of its Borders, Says Home Secretary appeared first on The Daily Sceptic.

offsite link The New Archbishop of Canterbury Needs to Stamp Out the CofE?s Reliance on Volunteers Wed Oct 15, 2025 09:00 | Joanna Gray
You wouldn't run schools without teachers. But the CofE tries to run churches without vicars. If new Archbishop Sarah Mullally has any sense she'll stamp out the church's reliance on volunteers, says Joanna Gray.
The post The New Archbishop of Canterbury Needs to Stamp Out the CofE’s Reliance on Volunteers appeared first on The Daily Sceptic.

offsite link Climate ?Science? is Now Pure Politics Wed Oct 15, 2025 07:00 | Ben Pile
The appointment of Imperial's Dr Friederike Otto to the IPCC shows that climate 'science' is now pure politics, says Ben Pile. Unable to produce actual evidence of 'extreme' weather, they resort to 'attribution studies'.
The post Climate ‘Science’ is Now Pure Politics appeared first on The Daily Sceptic.

offsite link News Round-Up Wed Oct 15, 2025 01:13 | Richard Eldred
A summary of the most interesting stories in the past 24 hours that challenge the prevailing orthodoxy about the ?climate emergency?, public health ?crises? and the supposed moral defects of Western civilisation.
The post News Round-Up appeared first on The Daily Sceptic.

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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

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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/
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