Ryan is gone.

Sponge Bob

The greens just resigned there. This means that Eamon Ryan is no longer Minister For Communications.

I don't think that Irish Communications policy was subjected to the whims and ignorance of a worse minister, as in ever in all of history worse This a department once run by Ray Burke and Noel Dempsey who were well capable of plumbing abject depths themselves.

I for one am delighted he has gone.

lucernarian

I have little hope for any improvements when civil servants like Peter O'Neill, until recently the assistant secretary with responsibility for communications policy, can "advise" a politician with self serving and sometimes ridiculous policy.

http://ie.linkedin.com/pub/peter-o-neill/21/276/100

This man was responsible for things like the NBS (which ended up being an Irish/EU subsidy towards a 3G mobile phone operator), dug his heels in with any possible increase in ComReg's powers or of the EU's influence in same and has been on record as claiming that 2 mbps was more than adequate for most Irish people's internet access.

While such men, completely untrained and ignorant of the portfolio they work in are going around advising TDs, this sort of ludicrous policymaking will continue.

Nollog

Do you have to be in government to hold a ministerial position?

Johnmb

/\/ollog wrote: »

Do you have to be in government to hold a ministerial position?

In government, yes, a TD, no. Except for Finance and obviously the top dog, other ministerial positions can be allocated to Senators (but not all of them, only a certain proportion). So it is possible to appoint someone who wasn't elected to the Dail as a Senator, and give them a ministerial position.

bealtine

Sponge Bob wrote: »

The greens just resigned there. This means that Eamon Ryan is no longer Minister For Communications.

I don't think that Irish Communications policy was subjected to the whims and ignorance of a worse minister, as in ever in all of history worse This a department once run by Ray Burke and Noel Dempsey who were well capable of plumbing abject depths themselves.

I for one am delighted he has gone.

Good riddance an abject failure in communications policies for sure

watty

They resigned as Ministers officially too. Ryan might have been better than Cowen or Lenihan as Finance Minister. How many good Ministers "really" has there been since 1922 in any Department?

bealtine

watty wrote: »

They resigned as Ministers officially too. Ryan might have been better than Cowen or Lenihan as Finance Minister. How many good Ministers "really" has there been since 1922 in any Department?

Too many lawyers and teachers pretending and struggling to understand their portfolios...

Jumpy

Can we get a damn tech in the position this time please?

lucernarian

Can we have people with unbiased telecommunications experience and training at principal and assistant secretary level in the department too? Democracy is always going to be a compromise and most TDs just aren't going to have much knowledge going into some of the more specialist briefs. It will take serious constitutional reform to change the existing pool of TDs running for the Dáil.

This is where the role of competent civil servants comes into play. Civil servants who can give proper advice without the undue influence of former employers (in this case Telecom Eireann), colleagues and friends in their field of expertise, interest groups, media connections and other conflicts of interest.

Cabaal

Don't mean to be the downer on this lads but you know whoever gets in power we're going to end up with the same type of situation,

- clueless
- listens to hype
- doesn't take any meaningful action
- won't give comreg any proper powers

Sponge Bob

The principal officers who were the next line under O Neill are arguably even worse than he was. The entire department is grossly dyfunctional...and that was before Ryan took over.

It would take a strong and clear minded minister together with entirely new blood at PO and Asst Sec levels (from industry or the dept of enterprise) to whip the rest of that department into shape.

Ryan was neither strong nor in any way minded...much less clearly so

Dr. Nick

So who's the next most likely idiot?

Sponge Bob

Dr. Nick wrote: »

next most likely idiot?

Coveney

Outside shot is that as FG allegedly have a plan to seriously upgrade BB in Ireland with serious amounts of fibring ( the plan is called New Era) they will appoint a competent junior to deal with that specific project.

The outside shot for that junior post is Richard Brutons runing mate, O Muirí and the other outside shot is none other than Shane Ross who would be an excellent choice.

bealtine

Sponge Bob wrote: »

Coveney

Outside shot is that as FG allegedly have a plan to seriously upgrade BB in Ireland with serious amounts of fibring ( the plan is called New Era) they will appoint a competent junior to deal with that specific project.

The outside shot for that junior post is Richard Brutons runing mate, O Muirí and the other outside shot is none other than Shane Ross who would be an excellent choice.

There's also Alan Kelly on the Labour benches(probably). he'd be a great choice too. One of the most cluefull politicians in telecomms I've spoken to.

lucernarian

Shane Ross won't be working with any blueshirt government, there's a lot of hatchets between the two that have yet to be buried I'm told.

conor.hogan.2

Ah civil war era politics, thats a bigger problem than telecomm....

bealtine

To_be_confirmed wrote: »

Shane Ross won't be working with any blueshirt government, there's a lot of hatchets between the two that have yet to be buried I'm told.

He's really a "blueshirt" under the skin

Sponge Bob

Alan Kelly is indeed another longshot. However Labour policy does not include a commitment to Universal High Quality Broadband in Ireland and it would be slightly odd to see a Labourite given the task of carrying out FG policy.

I cannot see a first time TD getting a Full Ministry, a talented junior would have to be given this job.

This is the New Era policy on Broadband

http://www.new-era.ie/broadband.html

Fine Gael will establish "Broadband 21" which will invest €1.8 billion over four years to build a high-speed fibre infrastructure throughout the country. The goal is to get Irish broadband speeds into the top five of OECD countries - with one million Irish homes connected to fibre - by the end of year four.

Just so you know there are around 1.8m homes in the state, minimum. UPC already passes .85m homes not that all of the UPC network is capable of carrying Broadband.

But while we can critique the FG policy none of the other parties even have one. Shane Ross is the exception. The Greens and Fianna Fáil cannot be trusted no matter what they say.

Onikage

Broadband 21 will enter into discussions with other telecom and cable companies (with a specific focus on Eircom) to upgrade this last mile infrastructure to fibre in the most highly populated areas of the country.

Slightly worrying. This is the company who brought us "Next Generation Broadband" by removing some of their artificial limits on the existing technology, and implementing new ones.

jock101

To_be_confirmed wrote: »

Shane Ross won't be working with any blueshirt government, there's a lot of hatchets between the two that have yet to be buried I'm told.

How about an IRA, Lab/Communist or Cute Whoor Gombeen one that we just had/still have???:rolleyes:

lucernarian

jock101 wrote: »

How about an IRA, Lab/Communist or Cute Whoor Gombeen one that we just had/still have???:rolleyes:

What exactly are you talking about?! Shane Ross and FG have a very cool relationship to say the least, I apologise if this post bothered you:rolleyes:

I use the term "blueshirt" merely as a colloquialism. I can quite easily say "Fine Galers" too but it was simply a matter of personal preference.