Irish domain names – Ireland’s domain name

General overview - IEDR

The country code top level domain (ccTLD) for Ireland is .ie. This ccTLD is managed by a not for profit organization in Dublin, Ireland know as the “Irish Domain Registry” or IEDR. The IEDR is not a regulatory body and provides the service to the public and internet community. The registry is responsible for the provision of IE names and the rules relating to their registration. The IEDR implements a dispute resolution policy for domains through the WIPO and unlike other registries operates Monday to Friday during business hours.

Requirements to register

The IE domain itself is a restricted domain in that only applicants who meet certain criteria may register this name. The two main requirements are: Being based in Ireland or having a strong link to Ireland (both northern and southern Ireland). Where the applicant is not based in Ireland information showing this connection must be provided. Secondly the entity registering the domain must have a connection to the name and where this connection is not obvious, must provide evidence of this connection.

Resellers and registration process

Domains are registered through approved domain resellers and are passed to the domain registry directly for approval. The approval process is carried out by a team of people known as IEDR Hostmasters. It is their responsibility to ensure the registration requirements are adhered to. Communication is passed to the approved reseller in the case where more information is required. This thorough process of vetting has led to both positive and negative effects on the domain name’s reputation.

Positive and negative aspects to the domain

On the positive side the domain was recently voted the second safest domain in the world after the Finnish ccTLD. Generally speaking IE domains are held in high regard by Irish based internet surfers. It is seen as a mark of quality or authenticity when doing business online and as a result .ie based websites are trusted over their .com cousins. Very rarely are large spam attacks initiated through an IE domain and the rate of hacks and other internet attacks from IE hostnames is quite low.

The price of .ie domain names are higher than the average TLD or ccTLD, but this price has been significantly reduced over the past 2 years, from an average of around €65 to as low as €19 today. This is due to the traditionally large human input required to approve and manage a domain portfolio. Recently the domain registry themselves have implemented an API mechanism to fast track registration, billing and modifications of domain names. This was carried out by liaising with the reseller community to assess their needs on a day to day basis. Because of the successful implementation of this API amongst the community the price of registering IE domains has fallen with some suppliers leading the way in the price reduction.

Future of the domain

The future of the .ie is bright. New technical advancements in the API as well as the continued reduction in the Irish domain price mean the number of registrations is increasing constantly. Increased promotion of the domain brand by the domain registry and reseller community alike has also led to increased registrations.