Firms are not investing adequately in providing information technology (IT) training for their staff and small and medium-sized companies (SMEs) are at risk of being left behind in the economy, the Information Society Commission warned yesterday.

But it's annual survey on business attitudes to IT said companies in general were making strong moves to embrace new technology, with about 55 per cent of firms stating they had a website.

Although 75 per cent of companies surveyed said IT skills were "absolutely essential or very important" to their business, only 43 per cent said they believed these skills were readily available. Citing a "gulf" between small and large firms on training, the commission said there was a "clear gap" between the readiness of large firms for the information society and their smaller counterparts. "Businesses are concerned about IT skills shortages, but they have not invested adequately in training. Irish businesses must make greater efforts to train their employees in new technology," said Ms Vivienne Jupp, chair of the commission.

"It is somewhat worrying when you look at training and the skills shortage and SMEs. It is incumbent on these SMEs to invest a bit more on training," she said. The survey said some 46 per cent of businesses with fewer than 10 workers provided no IT training. This contrasted with 8 per cent of businesses with more than 100 workers, which did not provide IT training.

Asked about obstacles to the development of e-commerce, 29 per cent of firms believed there were none. While 15 per cent said it was too expensive, only 5 per cent said it was too complex and 4 per cent said they did not know enough about it.

The findings of the survey was conducted in September by MRBI.