The recent introduction of online trading facilities by several major Irish stockbroking firms will make trading in stocks on the Irish Stock Exchange cheaper, more transparent and more accessible than ever before.

The stockbroking firms offering these services will, no doubt, hope their arrival will increase commission income by attracting a new breed of investor to the Irish market.

The Irish Stock Exchange will hope companies deciding where to list will consider the increased liquidity that these new investors will bring.

So who are these new investors and where have they been hiding?

The answer must be young, tech-savvy, high-income individuals who, until now, were scared off the Irish market by stamp duty on the transfer of shares, lack of quality information and high commissions. In recent years, these investors have ignored the Irish market, preferring to convert their punts and dreams into dollars and sterling, and to choose online trading accounts with E*Trade and Datek.

How these financial exiles have fared in foreign markets will inevitably affect the fledgling online trading business in the Republic. Have their experiences cost them too much for them to risk entering what for many is a new market? Have they moulded themselves into a highly motivated, quick-thinking capable group that will shake up the existing Irish financial community? It remains to be seen.

Even though the Irish market has held its own, and even managed gains through the recent upheaval in international markets, the timing of the arrival of these online services is less than ideal.

Investors in technology stocks have been hard hit, with their losses affecting the broader markets and contributing to a general economic slowdown. In the US, it is hard to meet anyone who has not lost money on the stock market in the past year and online investors have been among the hardest hit.

Many Irish investors, who would be naturally attracted to online trading at home, have shared this fate.

Indeed, the principal source of investment capital for many came from gains on share options in their employers' international parent companies.

It's possible to buy most of the major Irish stocks - including AIB, Elan, Smurfit and Ryanair - on international markets without having to pay stamp duty. On these international markets, you can find derivatives to hedge your bets and margin accounts to fund the transaction; these offer the investor a great deal of flexibility in the new reality of a turbulent marketplace.

Combined with ever-improving information sources and research material available on brokers' websites, the reduced currency risk of buying stocks in euros should, however, prove enticing to the online investor.

But the more compelling reason for these investors to buy into the Irish market is their knowledge of the Irish business environment and the companies quoted on the Irish Stock Exchange.

When trading in any stock, there are many financial, political and emotional considerations that must be factored into investment decisions.

These factors are just as important as technical analysis. It becomes much harder to quantify them when the stocks are overseas ones.

Regardless of the short-term outlook for Irish and international markets or the immediate challenge of attracting new money from weary investors, the development of online trading on the Irish stock market is welcome.

It may not attract the mass media attention it would have received 18 months ago, nor the legions of hopeful punters risking more then they can afford, but those whom it does attract will have a greater understanding of the risk and more realistic investment goals, and will use online investing resources to maximum effect.

Over the long term, the future of online trading in the Republic looks promising. It will attract many existing investors for execution-only transactions, as well as new investors who like to trade more actively.

But, with easier access to global markets and consolidation on the world's stock markets, online trading alone will not ensure the future of the Irish Stock Exchange.

There is a need to attract new companies to the market, improve transparency, extend access to innovative investment services and lobby the Government to remove stamp duty on the transfer of shares.

For accountants in practice, increased share ownership offers the potential to increase fee income by developing new services to offer clients. But in a society where litigation is the norm, will accountants be forced to prefix every casual comment with "this comment is not subject to the Investment Intermediaries Act"?

Diarmuid O'Donovan ACCA, is president of the Munster/Connaught Society of the Association of Chartered Certified Accountants.