December 2000

DUBLIN, IRELAND -- At a function today in the Guinness Storehouse honoring the visit of U.S. President Bill Clinton, the Irish Prime Minister Bertie Ahern, announced an initiative that will see Ireland’s Internet research links to the U.S. increase more than 20 fold over the next eighteen months, lifting Ireland to the leading edge of international Internet connectivity, and allowing Irish researchers to participate in real time, state of the art research with their American colleagues.

As a result of this initiative, Ireland’s Internet research connectivity to the U.S. will increase twenty fold by 2002, and will link education and research organizations in Ireland to more than 180 leading universities in the U.S. involved in the Internet2(R) and Next Generation Internet initiatives. This connectivity provides infrastructure support for the £1.95 billion in funding for education and research initiatives announced by the Irish government under the National Development Plan 2000-2006.

HEAnet, Ireland’s national education and research network provider, will undertake work on this initiative in Ireland, with assistance from the Minister for Education and Science, the Minister for Public Enterprise, the Higher Education Authority and the Information Society Fund. In supporting the project the Irish Minister for Education and Science, Dr. Michael Woods, stated that the availability of advanced networking, particularly high-speed access to the U.S. will allow Irish institutions to collaborate with the global academic community and thereby achieve world-class research capabilities.

The Irish Minister for Public Enterprise, Mary O’Rourke, welcomed this project stating that it will assist in achieving the critical mass required to give Ireland an international reputation in research, technological development and innovation, allowing Ireland to develop as a true 21st century knowledge society.

Mr. John Boland, Chief Executive of HEAnet added that this radical bandwidth increase provides an exciting opportunity for Ireland to be placed strategically at the core of advanced networking collaboration with the U.S.

About HEAnet
The mission of HEAnet is to deliver and support national and international network infrastructure and services for the higher education academic and research community. For more information, see: http://www.heanet.ie/.

About Internet2(R)
Led by over 180 U.S. universities working with industry and government, Internet2 is developing and deploying advanced network applications and technologies for research and higher education, accelerating the creation of tomorrow's Internet. Internet2 recreates the partnership of academia, industry and government that helped foster today's Internet in its infancy. For more information about Internet2, see: http://www.internet2.edu/.

Contacts:
Greg Wood
Internet2
ghwood@internet2.edu

John Bolland
HEAnet
john.boland@heanet.ie