A company funded by community finances left over from Eircom's information age town experiment has accumulated losses of more than €800,000.
Ennis Information Age Town (Services) Ltd was set up by the Ennis Task Force, which oversaw the five-year information age project. The company, which provides internet consultancy, was designed to build on the experiment and sustain jobs created during the period.
Task force chairman Mr Tommy Walsh confirmed yesterday that €1.1 million had been drawn down by the company from the €2.2 million left unspent at the end of the €20.9 million Eircom project.
However, internal monthly management accounts of Ennis Information Age Town, seen by The Irish Times, show it had accumulated losses of €839,459 at the end of February, as sales fell below target.
The IT firm still expects to move into profit by March 2005. However, it has had to cut staff numbers from 16 to 10.
Mr Walsh said the company's performance would be reviewed in June. Chief executive Mr Michael Byrne admitted that the company's original plan was over-ambitious.
