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IEDR records its first profitable year
Tuesday, May 14 2002
by Matthew Clark


In its first 18 months in operation, the IEDR, the company that controls the .ie
top-level domain, reported EUR1.94 million in revenues from registrations. 

The not-for-profit company said that surplus revenues for the 18-month period
came to around EUR90,000, after EUR1.85 million was deducted for certain
exceptional fees and relocation costs. The company described its surplus revenue,
which came to around EUR70,000 after taxes, as "satisfactory." 



Since the IEDR does not operate for profit, the company cited a number of other
figures that could be more relevant to its self-described role as public service
provider. The IEDR said that there was a 74 percent growth in new registrations
for .ie domains over the 18 months to December 2001 and that there are now over
22,000 .ie domain holders in both Northern Ireland and the Republic. 



The business expects a 30 percent growth in new registrations for next year. "We
are predicting a brighter outlook for the next six months, compared to the last
six months," said chairman of the IEDR, Professor John Scanlan. For the upcoming
year the company said that a number of issues would be discussed and dealt with,
including the possibility of making .ie addresses available to individuals.
Currently the IEDR only sells Ireland's top-level domains to businesses,
organisations and sole traders. 



Other issues to be dealt with will be the introduction of the .eu address, a move
that could impact the IEDR's business. The IEDR was in fact working with two
different consortiums that were looking to establish .eu's headquarters in
Ireland, but any such co-operation has now ended, explained Scanlan.  



"We were never formally part of any bid run for .eu, but we did contribute all
we could to the groups that were trying to establish it in Ireland," Scanlan
said at a press briefing on Tuesday. "We contributed all that we could, but we
are no longer associated with any bid for .eu." 



In the past few years, since the company spun out of UCD in July 2000, the IEDR
has been regularly criticised by many who work in the industry. Much of the
criticism that has plagued the business is rooted in what some industry workers
consider the non-transparent nature of the business, which essentially holds a
monopoly on the distribution of .ie addresses. 



Responding to these accusations, Scanlan rejected such notions and he repeatedly
said that the IEDR was now a business and it ran its affairs under that premise.
He rebuked claims that UCD was "shadow director" of the company, or that the
company ever acted in a way that is contrary to what it considers to be in the
best interests of the on-line Irish business community. 



Scanlan went on to say that the IEDR, which maintains an advisory board, is open
to admitting new members to the board who are concerned about the way the
business is run. 



Meanwhile, the re-delegation of .ie from UCD to the IEDR continues, but the
company said that the complex legal and technical process, though on-going,
remains on track. The IEDR is working closely with the ICANN (Internet
Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers) and IANA (Internet Assigned Numbers
Authority) to complete the process which could still take years to finalise. 



Meanwhile, ICANN itself is in the midst of some upheaval, with proposed
restructurings set to fundamentally change the way the Internet authority works.
For its part the IEDR said it fully supports ICANN, both in its present form, or
in a potentially restructured form, and the company has no desire to become mixed
up in the "political unrest surrounding ICANN."