.ie

.ie

Introduced	27 January 1988
TLD type	Country code top-level domain
Status	Active
Registry	IE Domain Registry
Sponsor	University College Dublin
Intended use	Entities connected with Ireland
Registration restrictions	"All applicants applying for a .ie domain name who are not situated in the 32 counties of Ireland, must demonstrate a real and substantive connection with Ireland (with the exception of those applying by means of Community Trademark)."
Structure	Registrations are done directly at the second level.
Documents	Registration policy
Dispute policies	IEDRP
Website	domainregistry.ie

.ie is the country code top-level domain (ccTLD) which corresponds with the to the ISO 3166-1 alpha-2 code for Ireland. The Internet Assigned Numbers Authority (IANA) list the Computing Services Computer Centre of University College Dublin as its sponsoring organisation for the .ie domain, however as of 2000 the business of administrating the domain registry is handled by IE Domain Registry Limited. Domain name registration is open to individuals located in, or with a significant connection with, any part of the island of Ireland.

History

.ie was registered on 27 January 1988 and a year later the registration of .ie domain names was delegated by Jon Postel to the Computing Services Computer Centre of University College Dublin then headed by Dennis Jennings. In 2000 the administration of the .ie domain was sub-delegated by UCD to IE Domain Registry Limited.

Government regulation

In 2000 the Irish parliament enacted a law giving the Minister for Public Enterprise the power to make regulations regarding the registration of .ie domain names. In 2007 this power was transferred to the Commission for Communications Regulation (ComReg). However as of December 2012 no such regulations have ever been made. In a draft strategy statement published in April 2012 ComReg stated that:

"In 2008 and 2009 ComReg carried out a detailed review of IE Domain Registry Ltd (IEDR), the current registry operator, and the operator has implemented various changes and improvements as a result. ComReg may appoint IEDR as the registration authority once key elements of the proposed regulatory framework have been put in place, including the implementation of adequate safeguards that ensure protection of the long term interests of all .ie stakeholders. This may require the enactment of further primary legislation."

University College Dublin is still the Internet Assigned Numbers Authority's sponsoring organisation.

Registration policy

The IEDR is considered more conservative than other similar authorities and places certain restrictions on registration. The .ie ccTLD is primarily a business orientated ccTLD for Irish businesses and businesses doing business in or with Ireland. It has allowed personal domain name (PDN) registrations though these would only account for approximately 1% of the number of .ie domain registrations.

Registration policies have been liberalised somewhat in recent years and rules such as the one against registering generic domain names have been dropped. Applicants for .ie domain names still have to provide proof of entitlement to the domain that they want to register.

Some town and village websites have opted for a .com domain instead. These websites are often voluntarily run by residents. Most of the town, city and county councils have registered their .ie domain. The .ie ccTLD has strong restrictions on the registration of geographic names and will generally permit only the town, city or county council to register such names.

Registering a domain

The retail cost of a .ie domain can be anywhere from €5 to €100. At the upper end of this price range, it is more expensive than a domain in a TLD such as .com or .net. This traditionally high price has ensured that .ie has grown more slowly than the number of Irish registered .com/.net/.org/.biz/.info domains. However IEDR has been reducing the wholesale (trade) price of .ie over the last few years and the number of registered .ie domains has been growing accordingly. It has exceeded parity with the number of .com domains registered hosted on Irish hosters.

The normal way of registering a .ie domain is via a .ie Registrar though it is possible to register a domain directly through IEDR. A direct registration is typically more expensive.

Second level domains

There is no official second level domain policy yet. However the Irish Government have begun using the .gov.ie domain instead of the original .irlgov.ie but some government departments have their own .ie domains.

A number of domain names, typically those of other TLDs, two letter domains and potentially offensive domains are forbidden from being registered. However two character domains consisting of one letter and one number are permitted. The only exception to the two letter rule is the ul.ie domain which was registered by the University of Limerick before the rule came into effect. The domains in the forbidden category will return a record for a WHOIS query but they are not in the .ie zone.

Number of registered domains

In April 2008 the number of registered .ie domains exceeded 100,000. A minor part of that growth was due to the introduction of Personal Domain Names in October 2007. A Personal Domain Name allowed an individual to register their own name or a variant of it with a utilities bill or passport as proof of entitlement. The .ie extension is growing in popularity in Ireland. While it has not yet surpassed the number of Irish owned .com domain names it is the preferred extension for new Irish businesses. Approximately 130 new .ie domains are registered each working day.

As of 16 July 2011, there are 165,940 registered .ie domain names.

See also

• HEAnet
• INEX
• ITnet

External links

• IE Domain Registry
• IE Domain Registered resellers
• IE Domain Registration Statistics
• IE Personal Domain Names