At an e-commerce seminar running in tandem with Comms 99, the three-day biennial telecoms industry showcase which concluded yesterday, Mr Richard Cooke, managing director of EsatNet, called for the immediate instalment of a "resilient broadband, national and international backbone network" in the Republic. He said the Republic could only become an e-commerce hub once online payment gateways had been established, Internet security solutions had been addressed, and competitive tariffing was in place.

"A critical mass for e-commerce will be achieved when we have a competitively priced Internet services market, and a fully liberalised and enlightened regulatory environment. In a lot of ways we still don't get it, and it is entirely up to us to grasp it," Mr Cooke said.