Telecom to give towns extra £5m

Telecom has decided to increase to £20 million its expenditure on the Information Age Town project. As planned, £15 million will be invested in communications technology in the winning town, Ennis, Co Clare. But the three other towns on the shortlist - Killarney, Castlebar and Kilkenny - will each receive £1 million to get some of the projects they proposed off the ground.

Telecom said yesterday that it would also set up a community access centre with facilities similar to those of a cybercafe in each of the towns which entered the competition. The towns would be linked by intranet in an "information age town alliance", and would share information garnered from the Ennis project.

It would also endeavour to assist with projects proposed by the unsuccessful towns, especially in seeking EU funding.

Telecom's first target in Ennis will be to equip the entire population with phones. Residents can also expect digital voice mail within the next three months.

Early next year, they should be able to buy PCs for £200.

The organisers of the project believe private and public enterprises in Ennis will break new ground by providing services on the Internet. A resident should be able to do everything from bank transactions to obtaining driving licences on the system within the next few years.

The provision of online health, security and educational services will be facilitated by the high speed ISDN lines which will be installed in the area.

The president of Ennis Chamber of Commerce, Mr T.J. Waters, said the people of Ennis were particularly enthusiastic about the possibilities for distance learning on the Internet, as the town had no third-level institution.