"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)."[3]
Structure
Registrations are done directly at the second level.
.ie was registered on 27 January 1988[7] and a year later the registration of .ie domain names was delegated byJon Postel to the Computing Services Computer Centre ofUniversity College Dublin, then headed byDennis Jennings. In 2000, the administration of the .ie domain was sub-delegated by UCD to a new company,IE Domain Registry Limited.
The Computing Services Computer Centre of University College Dublin remains theInternet Assigned Numbers Authority's sponsoring organisation for the .ie domain.[4]
In 2000, the Oireachtas (bicameral parliament of Ireland) enacted a law giving the Minister for Public Enterprise the power to make regulations regarding the registration of .ie domain names.[8] In 2007 this power was transferred to the Commission for Communications Regulation (ComReg).[9]
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. An individual is allowed to register their own name or a variant of it with a utilities bill or passport as proof of entitlement.
Registration policies have been liberalised somewhat in recent years and rules such as the one against registering generic domain names have been dropped. The .ie ccTLD is a managed ccTLD where applicants for .ie domain names have to provide proof of entitlement to the domain that they want to register. In August 2017 IEDR began a consultation on removing this restriction and allowing first-come first-served registration; the requirement of a connection to Ireland will remain.[10]
Registration is restricted to entities with a connection to Ireland. Thus, American singerMelanie was not allowed to registerMelan.ie;[11] whereasMicrosoft, which has a corporate presence in Ireland, was allowed to registerModern.IE, adomain hack whose full name reflects its purpose as support for IE (Internet Explorer).[12][13]
In February 2016 IEDR began a consultation on the introduction ofinternationalized domain names, in particular the vowel + "fada" characters (á é í ó ú) used inIrish orthography. IDN domains were launched[14] on a phased basis starting with existing domain holders on 23 October 2016, with general availability starting on 17 November 2016.[15][16]
The typical registration fee via accredited .ie registrars is approximately €25 (plus VAT of €5.75).[17] Registration is free for charities registered with theRevenue Commissioners. Evidence of entitlement to the domain name (such as evidence of entitlement to use a particular business name via a Registered Business Name certificate[18] or registered company name) and a connection with the island of Ireland are required for registration. The requirement to provide a 'claim to the name' was removed in March 2018, following public consultation.
There is no official second-level domain policy. A number of domain names, typically those of otherTLDs, two letter domains and potentially offensive domains are forbidden from being registered. Nevertheless, theGovernment of Ireland began using the.gov.ie domain where once it usedirlgov.ie. Some government departments continue to use their own nongov.ie domains.
Prior to 16 December 2015, two character domains consisting of one letter and one number were permitted, but two-letter domain registrations were not permitted.[19] The only exceptions to the old two letter rule wereul.ie, which was registered by theUniversity of Limerick before the rule came into effect, andns.ie, which is used for the .iename servers. The domains in theforbidden category will return a record for aWHOIS query but they are not in the .ie zone. In June 2015, the IEDR announced that two-letter names would soon be available;[20] a 30-day registration began in November for a go-live date of 16 December 2015.[19] Where there were multiple applicants for a given combination, an auction was held in early 2016.[19]
On 31 March 2022, there were 330,000 registered .ie domain names.[21] This has surpassed the number of Irish-owned and or hosted .com domain names. It is the preferred extension for new Irish businesses. Approximately 140 new .ie domains are registered each working day.
