Irish companies are not staying on top of information and communication technologies (ICTs) that enable them to compete with international rivals, according to Cisco Ireland.

Businesses in the Republic are consistently at least a year behind their British rivals in the uptake of new technologies and software applications, said Cisco Ireland country manager Michael Galvin.

The lag may be due to a different Irish "culture of technology", he said, noting that he didn't believe "the culture of Irish technology usage falls into the 'early adopters' [ category]".

However, he conceded that Irish businesses hadn't made any of the big information technology mistakes.

Nonetheless the gap spells out potential problems for Irish companies as new software applications and ways of using networks will increasingly bring advantages to both large and small companies.

Changing Irish attitudes towards using technologies "is part education and then transferring that to the customer, " he added.

Mr Galvin said that the Irish Government had been one of the better national role models for the use of new technologies. Several departments had been "aggressive" in setting examples for the corporate world by using new ICTs for major departmental projects, according to Mr John Stone, chief technology officer, Cisco Ireland.

"We need to make sure that, as a country, we are articulating the technological and productivity advantages of using new technologies," Mr Galvin said.

Cisco executives were speaking at a briefing for journalists in Dublin.