AN IRISH web business has criticised Fianna Fáil for its decision to move the hosting of its new website to the US. The contract is understood to have been worth just €12,000 a year to Hosting 365 but the Irish firm has questioned why Fianna Fáil isn’t “championing the Irish technology sector instead of moving business outside the country”.
“The move is akin to Alex Ferguson wagering on Liverpool to win the Premier League, as it undermines Irish hosting companies’ credentials,” a Hosting 365 spokesman told The Irish Times.
Fianna Fáil’s website has been overhauled recently with the party hiring Blue State Digital, the US agency that worked on Barack Obama’s successful online campaign, to oversee its new media strategy.
Last night, a spokesman for Fianna Fáil confirmed the website’s hosting had moved.
“The new website is still at the development stage and is very much a work in progress,” the spokesman said. “While the site is being developed it was necessary to temporarily host the website in the US and Fianna Fáil will be looking to transfer the hosting back to Ireland once it is ready to do so.”
The spokesman said that Blue State was working with Irish company Strawberry Media on the development of the site. Strawberry Media is a Donegal-based company headed up by Damien Blake, a Fianna Fáil member of Letterkenny Town Council.
Fergal O’Byrne, chief executive of the Irish Internet Association, which represents Irish online businesses, said: “We would encourage not just organs of the State but any companies working or based in Ireland to host in Ireland.” He said there was very little price advantage from moving to the US and basing the site in Ireland actually helped it score higher in search results.
This is not the first time Fianna Fáil’s attempts to build an online strategy based on Mr Obama’s successful grassroots campaign has run into difficulties.
Last month, the party invited bloggers to attend a talk in Dublin by Blue State founder Joe Rospars about his work on the presidential campaign.
However, many of those who attended subsequently complained that the event had not been billed as a Fianna Fáil one.
“I feel completely duped,” one poster to Twitter said afterwards.