It was good to see that Ronan Tynan (September 17th) has brought Y2K to your letters page. The legislature has a duty to consider how legitimate fears of litigation, arising from exposure of the truth of a company's readiness, can be allayed. Examples are the Compliance Co-Operation Protocol, The Millennium Moratorium, and Pledge 2000 from Action 2000 in the UK. An essential factor is that the reward (degree of immunity) is commensurate with the action taken by the company, and not the mere PR gesture of signing a pledge.
The British MP David Atkinson first raised the issue in October 1996 and was laughed at. Let's hope our TDs are not more than two years behind their UK counterparts, otherwise we are about to move from denial to panic without the usual intervening period of action.
A major factor in practice is the compliance pressure put on supply chain partners by those companies who are concerned about their exposure. Project leaders in large companies are working hard already. I recommend that such leaders be facilitated by local bodies such as chambers of commerce and county enterprise boards to make presentations to groups of smaller companies, and to offer general information on good practices. This is more efficient than trying to reach every trading partner individually. More information can be obtained at http://www.iol.ie/sysmod/year2000.htm. - Yours, etc., Patrick O'Beirne,
Systems Modelling Ltd, Tara Hill, Co Wexford.