€irePreneur - Doing microbusiness in Ireland.

January 21, 2004

Regulation and value in Ireland

Listening to 'The Last Word' on Today FM this evening I heard the start of an item on regulation in Ireland. I'm sure this was provoked by last week's outrageous news from Eircom that our telephone rental is to take another monopolistic hike.

Unfortunately I didn't get to hear much of the discussion but was alerted by the participation of Diarmuid MacShane to his website Value Ireland whose slogan is "Better purchasing decisions through better information". As well as providing a discussion forum and general consumer tips the site promotes the novel idea of printing off their Value Rating Cards the purpose of which is best explained by quoting from their site -

How does the Value Ireland Card work?

- As you complete your meal in a restaurant, or are paying for any product or service in any type of business, complete the relevant boxes on the Value Ireland Card and hand the completed card to the person you are dealing with.

- If the person is not a manager or position of authority, ask the person that you give the Value Ireland Card to pass it on to their manager, or to the business owner.

- When you return home, log on to www.valueireland.com, go to the relevant area of the Value Ireland Forum, and review your purchasing experience according to how you filled out the Value Ireland Card that you left at the business.

Its great to see consumer empowerment through innovative initiatives like this. Congratulations and best of luck to you Diarmuid.