More than 100,000 people who have free e-mail accounts with Ireland.com will be asked to pay for the service before the end of the year.

Existing users will get a 30-day trial period with a new Ireland.com e-mail account, which will offer a range of enhanced services, including short messaging service alerts to mobile phones.

Ms Mary Mangan, chief operating officer with Ireland.com, said the charge for the new service would be nominal.

She said the introduction of charges for the service, which has been free since its introduction, was necessary to enable the company to offer a better range of services.

Ireland.com is likely to introduce other charged services over the next few years.