Private investors can access up-to-date information on the movements of mutual funds through Ireland.com's newly-launched MoneyMate service.

The service, which features data updated every 24 hours on all Irish and pan-European mutual fund performances, is accessible online through www.ireland.com/business. It will also be made available through Ireland.com's WAP service for mobile devices.

The MoneyMate site allows users to compile personalised portfolios and offers additional services including fund performance statistics, a mutual fund education centre and independent investment commentary. Detailed investment data from other European markets including the UK, Sweden, Italy and Spain will be added within three months.

MoneyMate was launched by Irish company Software Vineyard in 1991, and is widely used by the financial community as a window to the Irish fund industry. According to Software Vineyard chief executive officer, Mr Paul Fawsitt, it is currently used by most fund managers in Sweden, Italy and South Africa. By offering the service free through the Irish Times's Ireland.com website, and other high audience websites, MoneyMate aims to become the number one fund analysis company in Europe.

MoneyMate is also planning to offer a subscription based service in conjunction with Ireland.com which will provide more instantaneous information feeds, including real time fund updates and performance reports.

The Irish Times through Ireland.com has also officially launched an enhanced "breaking news" service, offering the latest coverage of stories in politics, business, technology and sports, from Ireland and abroad, as it occurs during the day.

The rolling news service runs on www.ireland.com from 6.30 a.m. until 10 p.m. seven days a week. This will shortly be extended to a 24-hour basis.

At the launch of the private investor and breaking news services yesterday, the Minister for Public Enterprise, Ms O'Rourke, said: "The Internet provides the ideal medium, and now through services such as Ireland.com, every individual and every business can avail of it."

March audit figures for Ireland.com show that it is Ireland's leading website with 16.7 million page impressions per month and almost 1.2 million unique users. The ABC//ELECTRONIC audit also found that 35 per cent of Ireland.com's traffic originated in Ireland.