For the record 6 December

06-12-2006

by Jonathan Farrelly

Mixed reaction to Budget 2006 from technology business groups | Online voting opens for football team of 2006

The Irish Software Association has welcomed Budget proposals extending the Business Expansion Scheme (BES) and Seed Capital Scheme (SCS) until 2013, but criticised the Government for not including any significant moves to make the existing R&D tax credits scheme more accessible to small firms. "While we welcome these measures in [Wednesday's] budget, they still remain only a part of a suite of measures needed to support the development of the indigenous technology industry and reward high value risk investment," said ISA director Michele Quinn.

Meanwhile, the Ibec group ICT Ireland welcomed changes in R&D incentives but raised concerns about what they see as a missed opportunity to invest in more technology for schools. The total spend announced in the estimates equates to EUR40 per student (based on pupil enrolment of 781,000). "This is utterly inadequate and significantly behind that being invested in England, which spends on average EUR110 per student on technology," said ICT Ireland director Kathryn Raleigh.

The Government has failed the digital media sector according to Sean Cronin, chief executive of Cork-based mobile content distributor Selatra. "The continuing absence of sector specific incentives, despite industry representations, means we will fail to attract investors to the sector." His comments came after he felt Finance Minister Brian Cowen failed to extend the favourable incentives available to the Irish film industry, to the Irish digital media sector.

Voting has opened for the 2006 uefa.com team of the year. Users of the website can select a team of 11 players and one coach from a list of 60 nominations chosen by the staff writers of uefa.com. Club champions of Europe FC Barcelona have 11 nominations, while World Cup champions Italy are the most represented nation with eight nominations. A spokesman for the website said: "It was particularly challenging to select a group of nominees this year with performances in UEFA club and national team competitions in the latter stages of the 2005/06 season and the start of the 2006/07 campaign, domestic leagues and, of course, the FIFA World Cup coming under scrutiny."

FC Barcelona has also been named number one in this year's list of Power Soccer Brands by Irish broadband TV provider Servecast. FC Barcelona was followed by English Premier League club Manchester United which is also a client of Servecast. Also appearing in the top ten were Servecast's long term soccer clients Chelsea FC, Arsenal FC and Liverpool FC. Kevin Quinn, head of sports & media for Servecast said: "We have worked with the top Premiership football clubs for many years now. We recently announced the addition of our first major European soccer club -- FC Barcelona -- and we are growing our presence in Europe. As the chosen streaming media partner for some of the world's most famous soccer clubs, we have unrivalled expertise in the provision of broadband video solutions for soccer clubs."

University of Ulster academics Professors Bernie Hannigan and Jim McLaughlin have been appointed to a panel to advise the Northern Irish Government on how best to commercialise science and technology research. Enterprise minister Maria Eagle said: "The establishment of the Northern Ireland Science Industry Panel underlines our commitment to ensuring that the business community has every opportunity to lead the agenda in the commercialisation of our high technology and R&D strengths."

Dublin based Lan Communications has won a EUR240,000 contract to provide Tullamore Hospital with internet voice telephony. The new system will include 1,000 IP phone extensions for the hospital's new 300 bed facility that due to open in early 2007.

Anxious parents who are always looking for their kids may be interested in a new device from British firm Mobiles2go. The mobile phone-like i-Kids device allows children to call four pre-programmed phone numbers and receive text messages or calls from these numbers. If a child is in danger, a distress button cycles through the four speed dial accounts, and also sends a GPS signal pinpointing the child's location to within 20 metres.

Microsoft is launching a rival to Google's book search by releasing Live Search for books in the US tomorrow. The platform will include books from the British Library, University of California and the University of Toronto.