Ms O'Rourke also told The Irish Times that legislation following the guidelines of her Department's Framework Document on Encryption and Electronic Signatures will be drafted in October or November.

She was speaking in advance of today's digital signing of a joint US/Irish communique on e-commerce. President Clinton and the Taoiseach, Mr Ahern, will use electronic signatures to seal the document in a ceremony at Gateway Computer's Dublin facility.

They will use `smart cards' from Irish security software company Baltimore Technologies. Each has a unique card, embedded with a microchip which has stored on it a mathematical code used to create the signature, and a digital certificate (a digital ID) which identifies each signatory.

Mary O'Rourke interview, page 10