Befitting his title as the Marco Polo of Bunmahon (a small village in west waterford), my friend Kieran or Miles as he’s sometimes known has left for the east. We wish him well on his new adventures. It’s a real culture shock initially with strange activities such as getting drunk and going to a chinese restaraunt. Not like Ireland at all. BTW, & AFAIK the clear plastic bags for the laptops are to help you carry them visibly throughout the airport for security reasons. Paranoid or what…
A few years ago an Irish comedia called Tommy Tiernan performed a controversial sketch on the most convervative and traditional of Irish television shows, The Late Late show. The sketch depicted Jesus Christ’s (the one from Nazareth circa 30AD) last moments on the cross. It was certainly irreverent, probably blasphemous and left a large portion of the show’s studio audience stunned. Hundreds (not thousands or millions) of calls were received by the RTE switchboard condemning the joke for its tastelessness and blasphemy. Then something strange happened. We quickly got over it. Yes, a country renowned for its staunch catholicism revealed to the world that it had grown up and could accept religious criticism and humour. So just to summarise what happened for those less enlightened than our good selves. To the best of my knowledge:
On an island unfortunately known throughout the world for sectarian violence in a northern province, there was little response to mild religious provocation. It was not always so but it’s difficult to sympathise with religious fervour that’s so menacingly displayed. Liberty, fraternity and equality.
“Job satisfaction is what you get after you have enough money to survive in the present, enough money not to worry about the future & enough money not to care about whether your job is satisfying or not.” – Me
Honestly, this actually happened last week. The professional web designer is going to be extinct in this country if current trends continue.
me:Hi this is Shane Dempsey from Gaisan Technologies.
X: (indian accent) Hi, my name is X, I have a project that we’re interested in your company working on. We got your number from your website. We like your website.
me: Thanks. Are you based in Ireland?
X: Yes, yes, I live in Cork.
me: OK, that’s fine. Could you describe the project please?
X: I need to create an auction site… I want it to be like eBay only much simpler. It must handle credit cards and paypal and be able to take huge volumes.
me: Great, we’ve completed several sites like that. Before we discuss the site further, how much did you expect to pay for this site?
X: I only have 350 euro. I was told I could get a Romanian company to create the site for 200 euro.
me: Are you aware you’ll have to pay additional costs for credit card processing etc.?
X: how much?
me: probably more than 400 euro if you want an Internet merchant a/c with an Irish bank but cheaper with PayPal realistically.
X: I didn’t know that. Can you do the website for less than 200 euro. It’s only a few hours work.
me: We’ll have to pass on this project I’m afraid. Sorry.
X: goodbye…
So why is this a bad thing? Simply put, nobody in this country will be interested in IT degrees and training if rates drop below minimum wage. Equally, many large foreign IT companies are using Ireland to process profits while bringing about minimal IT employment. This doesn’t happen in the trades because they are provided locally and certification is required to work. Also, there’s no way to ensure standards are high and expectations are being met. Irish web designers and IT workers are crying out for country-wide accreditation and certification to ensure that standards remain high, customers’ needs are met and fees are realistic.