At .ie we have a range of policies to manage the .ie namespace for the benefit of Irish citizens, residents and businesses. These policies are developed using a bottom-up, consensus-driven, consultation-based approach which includes key stakeholders in the Irish internet community.
Policies are developed by the Policy Advisory Committee using a 10-step framework known as the Policy Development Framework, which, when relevant, can include public consultation. This ensures that .ie is a trusted space where Irish citizens and businesses can operate and thrive online in the knowledge that the namespace is managed fairly and transparently.
Policy Advisory Committee (PAC)
The Board of the .ie setup a Policy Advisory Committee (PAC) in 2014. The PAC considers and provides advice on policy issues concerning Ireland’s Internet top-level domain, .ie. The PAC makes formal recommendations to the Board.
The work of the PAC follows a 10-step framework known as the .ie Policy Development Process (PDP). The PDP is designed to be bottom-up and consensus-driven. This means that anyone with an interest in the running of the .ie namespace can suggest a policy change. If there is agreement amongst stakeholders, the policy change can be implemented. Further information on the PDP is detailed in section 5 below.
The PAC has previously considered and recommended policy change requests relating to the release of:-
- one / two letter domain names,
- Internationalised domain names (IDNs),
- the re-sale of the right to use a .ie domain name on a secondary market and
- policy liberalisation (removal of the claim registration requirement).
All of these policy change requests were subsequently approved by the Board of the .ie and introduced.
