The company that operates the Irish internet domain name registry grew profits by close to 10 per cent last year.

The IE Domain Registry (IEDR) will release figures this week showing turnover in 2005 grew 5 per cent to €2.3 million from €2.2 million the previous year. Pretax profits grew 10 per cent last year to €981,800 from €895,000 in 2004. After tax, retained profit for the year was €864,846.

The strong financial performance allowed the company to wipe out a deficit on its balance sheet. The accounts show that net assets stood at €803,582 at the end of 2005. Twelve months earlier it was in the red to the tune of €61,264. The results mark a turnaround in IEDR's fortunes over the last four years.

In 2002, the company had a deficit of €1.4 million. During that year a report by accountants KPMG made it clear that its financial controls were below the standards required of a limited company. It also had a considerable bad debt problem.

According to chief executive, David Curtin, over the last three years IEDR has focused on dealing with financial control and bad debt problems, while reining in costs and growing the business. The figures show that costs grew by €70,000 to €1.38 million between 2004 and 2005. This translates as 5 per cent, which was in line with turnover growth.

Internet site registration volumes were up 37 per cent, but income from this only grew by 6 per cent. IEDR has been cutting the cost of registering domain names. Mr Curtin is pledging further cuts for this year. The company has cut its prices by 40 per cent over the last three years.

IEDR is a not-for-profit company. According to Mr Curtin, all profits are reinvested in developing the business.