IE-Annual-Report-&-Review-2024

Financial Statements The directors present their report and the financial statements for the financial year ended 31 December 2024. Principal Activity The company was incorporated on 16 November 1999 and commenced to trade on 1 July 2000. The principal activity of the company is the registry for .ie internet domain names. The company is the country code top level domain (ccTLD) Manager for the .ie namespace and is designated by the Irish government as an operator of essential services (OES). Results and Dividends The profit for the financial year amounted to €385,690 (2023 – €86,100), after providing for depreciation, taxation, the unrealised gains on financial investment and setup costs associated with implementing the company’s new strategic initiatives, within the parameters of the corporate reserves management policy. No dividends are payable as the company is limited by guarantee and does not have a share capital. Business Review Administrative expenses decreased by €53k (1.1%) from €4.84 million to €4.79 million in 2024, in line with the company’s strategic plan and operational plans for 2024: ▶ Technical Services expenditure decreased by €23k (2.6%) compared to the prior year, which reflected the ongoing costs of ISO compliance and improvements in cyber security defences and preparations for EU cyber regulatory expansion. The company continued to provide funding for policy responses to technical abuse that uses the DNS. ▶ Marketing and promotion expenditures decreased by €75k (12%), largely attributed to a niche advertising campaign and reduced media coverage for our programmes and reports. Financial investment continued for the .IE Digital Town awards programme in 2024, being the final year of a four-year €1 million programme to help digitalisation in Ireland’s towns. ▶ Employment costs decreased by €17k (0.7%) in 2024 to €2.49 million reflecting the employment of new skill sets to implement the company’s new strategic initiatives; inflation-related cost of living salary increases for all staff; offset by moderated market rates associated with staff churn. Turnover increased by €105k (2.5%) to €4.3 million (2023 – €4.21 million). Activity in domains was below 2019 pre-pandemic levels, as digital transformation initiatives continued to slow following the removal in January 2022 of pandemic-related restrictions. Year-on-year new registration numbers decreased by 5.2% in 2024, after record years of new registrations in 2020 and 2021. The sales channel is managed by the company’s contracted accredited registrars, who are selected by individual domain holders to manage .ie domains on their behalf and provide other services such as hosting and email management. When non-renewals are considered, the net change in the total number of registered .ie domain names was a reduction of 1,681 (-0.51%) in 2024/2023, compared to a net reduction of 1,018 in 2023/2022 and net reduction of 842 in 2022/2021. The deferred revenue on the balance sheet was largely unchanged, increasing by just 3.1% in 2024, to €3.15 million (2023 – €3.05 million). This is because the net invoiced value of registration fees increased by 3.1%, reflecting a renewal price increase of 14% from September 2024, an 85.5% renewal rate on the opening database and a decrease of 5.2% in newly created registrations to 45,941 in 2024 (compared to 48,458 in 2023). The financial position of the company at 31 December 2024 is solid with Members’ Funds of €5.74 million. The market value of financial investments at 31 December 2024 is €8.59 million (2023 – €7.66 million). Future Developments The company continues to monitor international developments impacting ccTLD registries, particularly: the consequences of the slowdown in the rate of new digital adoption after two years of digital acceleration brought about by the Covid-19 pandemic restrictions; costly new EU cyber security regulations which are designed to address the dramatic increase in cyber-attacks by bad actors; private equity driven consolidation of service providers and; the ICANN proposals for ongoing international expansion in the number top-level domains, which may increase choice for consumers, but bring more intensive competition amongst registries. These developments may result Directors’ Report for the financial year ended 31 December 2024 IE Domain Registry CLG t/a .IE / Annual Report & Review 2024 33