In Short

A round-up of today's business news in brief

England and Wales match to be in 3D

England’s forthcoming RBS Six Nations match against Wales will become Europe’s first live 3D sports broadcast, team sponsor O2 announced this week. Rugby fans can watch every crunching tackle and scrum with the latest 3D technology at 40 Odeon and Cineworld cinemas across Britain on February 6th.

England’s Six Nations match against Ireland on February 27th will also be screened live in 3D. - (PA)

Concern over long waiting lists for FÁS courses

The ongoing problems at State training agency Fás are negatively impacting the Government’s plans for a smart economy, according to Dublin recruitment agents Verify.

The firm says that there are now long waiting lists to get on to higher level courses offered by Fás, such as those covering project management and IT service management.

Verify says there is also uncertainty as to the eligibility of self-employed consultants for the Fás courses.

“Long waiting lists and red tape at Fás mean that job seekers are having to fund training from their own savings, which is unacceptable,” said Cathal Grogan, managing director of Verify.

Moodle put to the test in big freeze

Students at Rosemont secondary school in Blackrock, Dublin, didn’t let the weather prevent them from starting back to their studies last week.

Teachers uploaded school work and assignments into the school’s online learning management system, Moodle, to enable students to catch up with classes at home.

During the big freeze 70 per cent of students logged into Moodle.

Number of Irish web domains rises by 8%

The number of dot-ie domain names registered in 2009 reached record levels, the IE Domain Registry (IEDR) said this week. IEDR, which manages the dot-ie registry, said 37,055 domains were registered for the year, an increase of 8 per cent on 2008. There are almost 136,000 registered dot-ie domains. There was a strong rise in the fourth quarter with 8,533 domains registered – an 11.5 per cent rise on the same period in 2008. IEDR said the strong figures indicated continued demand from Irish sole traders and limited companies.