Venture capitalists in Dublin this week were faithfully following the party line. Various representatives maintained the recent bursting of the dot.com bubble would not affect their business. It was business as usual, said one. Another venture capitalist insisted they looked at company fundamentals not the state of the stock market when considering investments.

The protestations sounded hollow even to some of the Irish broking community.

One said the venture capitalists now appear to be more cautious, with such deals being repriced. "I believe investors will be more focused on not throwing money around," said one.

It has been common knowledge in the US at least for some time that venture capitalists fearful of missing the boat on the dot.com revolution have been throwing their money at almost any business plan in this sector crossing their desk. Such actions have only served to fuel the bubble and draw in unwary investors to prematurely floated dot.coms.

A sense of perspective and a return to fundamentals by such investment funds can only produce a more stable environment for the small investor.

Dominic Coyle can be contacted at dcoyle@irish-times.ie