The millennium bug problems expected among Ireland's smaller firms failed to materialise yesterday as business activity resumed.
By mid-afternoon, the Small Firms Association had received 100 pre-arranged calls from companies in the manufacturing, distribution, retail and services sectors.
"Of the 100 companies who rang in with updates, not one re ported any kind of Y2K glitch," said association director Mr Pat Delaney. There was no evidence of frustration that the Y2K investment had been a waste of time and money, he added.
"If nothing had been done, we might have seen some short-term and permanent closures of companies. Many say they have learned an enormous amount ab out their IT processes as a result, and are more aware of the enormity of problems they can pose," he said.
Yesterday, larger institutions and utilities, which spent tens of millions of pounds guarding against the Y2K bug, were unanimous in their support of the massive investment.
The banking community spent more than £100 million (€127 million) on Y2K and, according to spokesmen for both Bank of Ireland and AIB, it was money well spent.
"It's like an insurance policy. Everybody pays for one each year in the hope that nothing happens. We did find non-compliant items during the process and, if we hadn't taken measures, there would have been problems," a Bank of Ireland spokesman said.
Eircom's Y2K project manager, Mr Dave Murray, pointed to Monday's glitch, when callers to Eircom's automated dial-in service had their account balances backdated to 1900.
"If nothing else, yesterday's blip shows the investment was justified, and I think there were a lot of small glitches worldwide which haven't been heavily reported. It shows we did a good job all around, and what might have happened with more significant systems."
Most Y2K managers emphasised that their systems were still prey to problems, and they would be keeping a close eye on February 29th, when the leap year falls - another date predicted to cause computer mayhem.
According to Mr Michael Phillips, the chief city engineer for Dublin Corporation, there would have been several definite interruptions in the massive Fingal water treatment system, where embedded chips were employed. He also pointed to benefits of the £1.75 million (€2.2 million) Y2K exercise.
"An awful lot of software and equipment needed upgrading, so it helped people make decisions to upgrade this year instead of next year. The result is more user-friendly software, which is easier to train operatives on," he said.
An spokesman said the ESB had no choice but to invest in Y2K preventative measures. Not to have done so would have been negligent, and there would definitely have been system failures.
