The Irish government has opened a very broad ranging consultation on the .ie country code domain and its future.
The consultation will be open to the public from now until 14th February 2025.
The consultation document runs to 17 pages, so while it’s quite long, it’s not as long as it could be!
The Government has some clear expectations about what it expects from the domain name registry, but the consultation is meant to help them hone this further.
So what are they asking?
The consultation breaks it up into four discrete areas:
- The .ie ccTLD Manager’s roles and responsibilities
- Governance and management of the .ie ccTLD
- Stakeholder engagement
- Future risks to the security and stability of .ie.
For each section there are a number of questions that they’d like answered, so I’ve broken those out below:
Roles and Responsibilities
- What do you believe are the primary roles and responsibilities of the Irish ccTLD Manager?
- What do you expect of the manager of the .ie ccTLD?
- What external trends and developments may affect the Irish ccTLD Manager’s roles and responsibilities?
Governance and Management
- What best practice approaches and processes should be considered with regard to the corporate governance of the .ie ccTLD manager?
- What does good corporate governance for the .ie ccTLD manager look like?
- What arrangements should be in place to ensure the governing board of the .ie ccTLD can effectively deliver its roles and responsibilities?
- What oversight and other governance arrangements should be put in place?
Stakeholder Engagement
- Who are the .ie ccTLD stakeholders?
- How should the .ie ccTLD manager engage with its stakeholders?
- Are there guiding principles which should be considered?
- Should the .ie ccTLD governance structure be reflective of the range of stakeholders that rely on, or interact with, the .ie domain?
Future Risks to the Security and Stability of .ie
- What emerging risks does the .ie ccTLD face in relation to the security and stability of the .ie domain?
- What is best practice for DNS administration?
- What appropriate mitigation strategies should the .ie ccTLD manager adopt?
- How should these strategies be assessed?
- How should the .ie ccTLD manager engage with the Government in its management of risks?
Hopefully there’ll be constructive feedback from a broad range of interests. In the current environment it’s not surprising that the government is taking a more active interest in the .ie ccTLD. While up until a few years ago the Irish government wasn’t that active in the internet governance space, they have been more present in recent years at international fora such as the IGF and ICANN. The current consultation is supposed to lead to the drafting of “terms of endorsement”, which will provide a firm framework for the future:
“This endorsement agreement will aim to set out the core principles, shared by the parties, and provide safeguards around the management of the .ie registry.”
The government has powers to regulate the .ie ccTLD, but historically it has adopted a “light touch” approach. Back in 2009 Comreg published a report based on a consultation and in light of that report there were a number of changes made, including the introduction of the Policy Advisory Committee.
One thing I did notice in the consultation document is that the government is setting down a very clear marker with respect to the .ie ccTLD:
“No private intellectual or other property rights should inhere in the .ie ccTLD itself, nor accrue to the delegee as the result of delegation or to any entity as a result of the management, administration, or marketing of the ccTLD”
I read that to mean that the registry database cannot be seen as “IP” by whoever is running the registry. It doesn’t stop the registry manager from accruing IP in other things – just not the ccTLD itself.
If you have an interest in how .ie domains operate then take a few minutes to review this consultation, as it could impact how .ie domains operate in the future!
