Paying the price of new technology's foibles

Technology is not the universal panacea after all, it appears. While Eircom's technology town - Ennis - has been enjoying a range of technology options in the past year, one has fallen by the wayside.

The electronic purse is not, it seems, all it was cracked up to be. The plan was that you would put money onto a card at various outlets and then use the card to pay for purchases throughout the town. The idea was to pave the way for the much-vaunted cashless society.

It has been slow to take off, however, with both retailers and customers apparently having doubts about its merits.

One of the problems is intrinsic to the experimental nature of the project - geographic restrictions on its use. People are reluctant to tie up their money in the card when it is not acceptable in retail outlets outside of Ennis.

The other problem is somewhat more surprising. It appears, that for all the wonders of modern technology, it takes longer to conduct cashless transactions than simply to root for and hand over the money.