Information Age Town IT firm to close

The private IT company funded from monies left over from Eircom's Information Age Town project is to be wound up after losing more than €790,000 over a three year period.

Ennis Information Age Services (EIAS) is to cease trading from August 5th, by which time €1.5 million from the €2.25 million left over from the EIAT project will have been invested in the company.

Independent Clare TD, James Breen, said yesterday: "I am disappointed that the company is closing and at the accumulated losses, but I regret that a much larger proportion of the €2.25 million left over was not invested in locally community-based projects."

The most recent accounts filed with the Companies Office show that EIAS at the end of March last year had accumulated losses of €790,355.

The company was established by the Ennis Information Age Town Task Force in 2002 after Eircom withdrew from the €19 million IAT project.

Ennis became Ireland's Information Age Town in 1997 and soon after 4,500 cut price PCs were distributed to 82 per cent of Ennis's homes.

The town's schools and businesses also benefited.

However, the 2002 Census showed that Ennis had fewer homes with PCs and internet usage than a number of suburbs in the Greater Dublin area, including Portmarnock, Malahide, Greystones, Leixlip and Cellbridge with Ennis having 58 per cent of homes having PCs and half that percentage online.

In establishing the EIAS, the local Task Force agreed that the €1.25 million would be put at the company's disposal which would engage in internet consultancy and online marketing - in the end the company has cost the Task Force an estimated €1.5 million.

Prior to moving to close down the company, the Task Force had invested €1.35 million and the company's wind-up costs are expected to be an additional €150,000.

At the outset, the company employed 16 people and this had dropped to six by yesterday.Task Force member and EIAS's chairman, Philip O'Reilly, said the decision to shut down operations was made "as it was deemed there wasn't a long-term viability in the company".

The chief executive of EIAS, Michael Byrne said it had been "a real effort to be at the leading edge of the market and probably in some ways, we were ahead of the market. The bottom line is that we haven't been able to establish a viable business."

The remaining €750,000 is to be used by the EIAT Task Force in technology related projects for the benefit of Ennis.