LIKE SIMON MCGARR, I would like to know who are the principals behind Gateway Ireland and how the newly-launched entity conforms with best practise as laid out by Irish Standards in Public Office (SIPO). I'm impressed by the list of people invited to attend yesterday's launch event but that does not change the need to conform with well-regarded standards of practise. If the organisers of Gateway Ireland fail to meet or exceed SIPO standards, they risk the venture deteriorating into a quango that exists to provide jobs for the boys. I suspect the people behind the vision are watching the public response to the launch of their "national website to promote Ireland by accumulating existing information and resources and amalgamating it at one location." I'm a little uneasy when I cannot find standard disclosure materials while reading soft statements that "the site will be monetised with profits going to charity (and) that the organisation itself will be structure as a charity."
Simon McGarr -- "Your Country Your Call, the SIPO Question" from 20 May 2010 on the Tuppenceworth blog.
John Mulligan -- "Catch-all website plans to promote nation through electronic embassies" in the Independent, 27 May 2010.
Direct link to http://www.insideview.ie/files/gateway_ireland_boo.mp3
