Sir, – I would like to register my upset and annoyance at the loss of the ireland.come-mail service (Business, October 16th). I, and other members of my family have used this service for approximately 14 years.
While I do acknowledge the benefit and sense of working with Tourism Ireland to promote Ireland using the valuable ireland.comdomain name, I do not understand the necessity of discontinuing the e-mail service as a result. In fact, why not promote its use even further to make brand Ireland even more evident worldwide? A link with the Homecoming Event could have been considered.
My final grievance is with the notice period given. To provide three weeks’ notice of the closure of a utility service is ungenerous, to say the least, and threatens the goodwill of The Irish Times in the process.
I would urge all concerned to reconsider this decision for the benefit of the ireland.come-mail users, The Irish Times and Ireland. – Yours, etc,
Sir, – May I vent my annoyance at Minister for Tourism Leo Varadkar for overseeing and allowing the sale of the "ireland.com" domain name from The Irish Times to Tourism Ireland. I am asking that he insists that the decision of over 15,000 people losing their ireland.comemail address be reversed.
I have lived abroad for many years and I have always been proud of my e-mail address, for many reasons. I always feel as if I am promoting Ireland not only through myself, but also through my e-mail address, which I have had since 1994.
I feel that the Minister, instead of shutting down the domain address, should ensure the service should be enhanced and promoted. The people who have been promoting Ireland through this address should not be punished; there are many benefits of @ireland.com – including it being used as a service for the Diaspora. This is a resource that should be expanded and used as a tool for encouraging people to come to Ireland.
A number of the 15,000 customers who will lose their e-mail account are businesses that use the address to promote Ireland or use it to drum up support for The Gathering next year.
Many people will have business cards, stationery and contact lists affected and in the current economic circumstances, small businesses do not need this sort of expensive rebranding.
Surely some measure can be put in place to enable these accounts to continue. Can the Minister not advise Tourism Ireland to maintain these accounts? It is a shame that such an attractive e-mail address will be lost, which I, for one, am very proud to have and use! – Yours, etc,