CircleID

It is not clear from your article whether the Irish Government is putting these powers in place as an emergency reserve (in case IEDR, the .ie registry, goes into meltdown for some reason in the future) or whether they actually intend to do something now (because they think .ie is being run badly now). One is more important than the other - several countries have reserve powers to take over their ccTLD if needed - if only because Governments tend to use their ccTLD for their own email and websites.

As for: "How do they hope to make that stand up in court?" - well, primary legislation tends to stand up well in court, unless it contravenes some more fundamental law (e.g. a constitution etc.).

As for "summary conviction" - in England & Wales this is lawyer-speak for criminal convictions in the magistrates court, not the civil courts. I presume that the same is true in Irish law.

The registry is being run quite well right now, with lower prices year on year as well as better reseller-registry relationships and tools, but it's been run horrendously in the past and I'd guess they're making sure they're prepared for a reoccurence. You could hardly blame them, but trying to apply legislation retroactively is generally bad practice, and as far as I'm aware something that doesn't stand up very well in Irish courts.

dahamsta - that was my thinking as well.

While I can appreciate that a national government would wish to have some oversight on the ccTLD there are some aspects of the legislation that go beyond mere oversight, which is one of the aspects of it that worries me.

Ed - It's not clear what the government's motivation was in drafting the bill. As dahamsta mentioned, there were issues in the past, however the current management has made many positive changes.

Michele