Nah, people in Ireland are too willing to put up with crap like this. We like to complain, just to neighbours, not people that will actually do something about it.

Allied to the fact that Eircom controls all the phone lines in the country (charging over â23/$30 a month for rental), and the fact that the state of cable and wireless broadband in Ireland is a shambles; I'm not sure Eircom will have much to worry about in terms of prospective customers.

Eircom adapts this voluntarily.

Reminds me of the speed cameras - after years, just as the UK discovers that speed cameras do essentially nothing for road safety, Ireland plans to hand out a license to private companies to get hundreds installed.

I hate some of the stuff on this Island.

LEAVE STEVE-NEY ALONE!!!!!1!!

That's the joke [/McBane]

That's a lot of money, introducing a lot of heartache - and for what? Is the goal educating the kids, or do you just get warm and fuzzy at the thought of a utopian macbook wielding society.

Laptops are not an end to education, they are a means. I would feel a lot more positive about the idea if there was some mention of what you plan to use computers for, rather than "computers are a part of out society, lets give our kids laptops". That's just irresponsible spending. Is your existing education system so good that this has become the best investment of such a large amount of time and money?

I'm pretty sure the irony only surfaces with your own contribution.

1 GBP doesn't equal $2, it's not even as valuable as $1.5 at the minute.

Insightful comment in general. When you take the meaning of science in it's truest form as a desire for knowledge, your comment shows that as a race we're shifting from a desire for knowledge to a desire for ignorance, which is particularly worrying.