Costs €79 plus vat per year to register a .ie domain name?

[Lak]

Am I correct in assuming that it costs €79 plus vat per year to register a .ie domain name when every other form, ie, .com .net are a mere €10 and .co.uk is a mere €2.
What benefits could there possibly be in having .ie over .com other than it is Irish, surely the discrepancy can not be a simple case of yet another rip off.

 

[DrMoriarty]

Re: www.ie

[broken link removed] is what the IEDR says. It must be OK, so...

This up market positioning is becoming increasingly more popular as the product tends to stand out from the ".com crowd". [sic]

 

[CCOVICH]

Re: www.ie

What are the chances of getting a decent/meaningful/memorable .com address these days, compared to an .ie one?

 

[CGorman]

Re: www.ie

You are paying for the regulation basically - not everybody can get a .ie domain which protects legitmate businesses and ensures (as was stated above) an 'upmarket' preception of .ie's.

By the way, you can get a .ie for €30 per annum this month from Blackknight.ie