The majority of small organisations are unprepared for the "Millennium Bomb", according to a survey by PA Consulting Group, which questioned 1,000 companies in 15 countries - an average of 66 companies per country.
The survey shows that Irish organisations with turnover of less than £15 million are failing to address the Year 2000 problem when certain computer systems will crash because of their inability to process dates beyond December 31st, 1999.
"This is the most comprehensive survey to date of Irish industry and reveals that the Celtic Tiger may be in danger of losing some of its teeth," the company stated.
Only 16 per cent of smaller organisations have a millennium programme plan in place, compared to 59 per cent of the largest organisations, according to the results.
"Once the millennium problem hits their systems, the business impact could be horrendous," Mr Ray Nulty, of PA Ireland, said.
He said it was incumbent on the Government, financial institutions and advisers to begin a programme of education.
"Incorrect data processing could be catastrophic for businesses unable to process orders, despatch invoices, calculate payments, process transactions and so on...the only counter-measure is to detect and remove any problems in advance," PA Consulting stated.
