Digital gesture by President makes history

In a room in Aras an Uachtarain that once knew only quill pens and inkpots, the President, Mrs McAleese made history yesterday by using a digital signature to sign a Bill into law.

Technology certainly doesn't rattle the President. Looking as if she'd done it a thousand times before, the President coolly took her seat behind a small laptop and did her official duty, despite the added distraction of a posse of photographers jostling for position. "Just one click of the mouse does it," she said, clearly enjoying the task. Appropriately enough, the Bill was the Electronic Commerce Bill 2000, which now gives equal legal recognition to electronic signatures and enacts a framework under which they may be used.

However, in a gesture that indicated just why the Bill was needed in the first place, the President first signed it in pen. Although most lawyers believed that an electronic signature would have been recognised as legally binding in court even under existing law, the State was taking no chances. The Bill-signing process began earlier, when a personal, secret code that would become part of the signature was generated using software from Dublin company Baltimore Technologies. Then, a digital certificate was issued which corresponds to the code, and further guarantees the identity of the person creating the signature.

The President then chose a password that would allow her to unlock the code. Seated before the laptop, the President entered her password and the software began to generate the "signature", which is not a written name but a unique mathematical code that links the signer of the document to the contents of the document itself. Standing to one side and beaming throughout the ceremony were managing director of Baltimore Technologies Mr Fran Rooney and vice-president of marketing Mr Paddy Holahan, and the Department of Public Enterprise civil servants who drafted the Bill, including principle secretary Mr Brendan Tuohy, and Mr Niall O Donnchu, who wrote most of the Bill. The Minister, Ms O'Rourke, was unable to attend. "A very polite way of doing business," said the President, after the software generated a concluding "thank you".

During the signing, the President showed none of the tech jitteriness of US President Bill Clinton and the Taoiseach, Mr Ahern, when they digitally signed a joint communique in September 1998. "She's quite technologically literate," said Mr Rooney afterwards, expressing delight that the President had offered herself as a role model for the use of the signatures.

He noted that both An Post and the Chambers of Commerce of Ireland already provide the infrastructure for their use. The signatures will also be used in September when citizens can file online tax returns to the Revenue Commissioners.

"It was important to give leadership on this," said Mr O Donnchu. "It sends a very strong signal to business and Irish citizens that working in a digital environment can and should happen."