IN THE PAPERS
In The Papers 14 May
14-05-2010
by Sylvia Leatham
Integrity, Espion create new security jobs | HP outsources staff to Celestica
The Irish Times reports that the Government is to introduce legislation to ensure overseas betting providers comply with Ireland's licensing regime, Taoiseach Brian Cowen has announced. He said the tax regime for the betting industry would be extended to cover companies providing online and telephone betting.
The paper also says that British economist Will Hutton was critical of the recent Innovation Taskforce report in a public lecture in Liberty Hall in Dublin this week. The report "does not go any way far enough," he said. "The first page of the report talks about tax breaks for entrepreneurs. We are going to need a lot more than that." Hutton said investment in innovation was the only way forward. He said a new suite of institutions needed to be created to facilitate investment in innovation and described as shocking the low level of investment coming from the financial sector into innovation and start-ups.
The paper also says that the Garda Siochana made more requests for phone-call traffic data in 2008 than did police in Germany, a country with 20 times the population of Ireland. According to a leaked draft of a European Commission report, Gardai made more than 14,000 access requests for call data in 2008, a rate about 40 percent higher than had been previously assumed by data privacy advocates. The information, supplied by the Government, is revealed in a draft report for the European Commission that will be issued later this year, but which was leaked to a German privacy advocacy organisation. The report evaluates the application of data retention legislation across the EU.
The same paper notes that Gerry McQuaid, the former commercial director of mobile operator O2, has taken up a similar role with Irish-headquartered Cubic Telecom. "The new Cubic Telecom which is about to be launched is very different from the old one," said McQuaid. "It's very internationally focused." Cubic has specialised to date in providing low-cost international roaming services for mobile users. It sells its own MaxRoam service, which provides low-cost text and data in 220 countries. McQuaid said Cubic had developed a new core network that allowed data and calls to be intelligently routed over the best value network. He said Cubic would now be selling this service to other telcos and big brands.
The paper also reports on the creation of new jobs in the security technology industry by two companies this week. Integrity Solutions has announced an investment of EUR1.05 million to build a new network operations centre at its Dublin headquarters, with the creation of 12 new jobs. Separately, the new Dublin HQ of Espion will be opened by Minister for Communications Eamon Ryan on Friday. The company said it plans to create an extra 12 jobs over the next 18 months.
The paper also notes that Belfast company Lagan Technologies is about to launch a trial of a mobile phone-based application in Britain that gives people the opportunity to deal with anti-social problems. The free Citizen Connect app lets iPhone users report non-emergency problems, such as graffiti or flickering street lamps, from their mobile phones. All the user has to do is open the app, which automatically finds the phone on a map thanks to GPS technology, take a photo of the problem, upload it and hit send. The photo is routed to the local government department dealing with the issue.
The Irish Independent says that Hewlett-Packard is outsourcing 140 of its staff to Galway-based electronics company Celestica from next month. Staff will remain located at HP's technology campus in Leixlip, Co Kildare, and under 'Transfer of Undertakings' legislation, there should be no immediate change to their terms and conditions of employment. But the permanent staff, who are not unionised, claim they have only been guaranteed a year's work.
The Irish Examiner reports on O2 Ireland's first-quarter key performance indicators, as reported by ENN on Thursday.
The paper also reports that security firm McAfee plans to add 150 jobs in the coming years to the 120 jobs unveiled at the opening of its new EMEA headquarters in Mahon, Cork. Formally opened on Thursday by Enterprise Minister Batt O'Keeffe, the company now has 280 staff in Cork. McAfee's senior executives hinted that there's more good news on the horizon for the facility, which was custom-built with a capacity for 450 staff.
According to the Wall Street Journal, Facebook has said it is implementing new tools to protect users from scams. Lev Popov, a Facebook software engineer, wrote in a company blog posting that the social network was releasing a new feature that allows users to be notified when someone is accessing their account from a device they don't commonly log in from. Users can choose to receive the warnings through e-mail or text message. He also said Facebook would take new steps to block suspicious log-ins, including asking people to identify a birthday or name a friend in a photo.
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