It breaks your heart really to see the hard put-upon small business sector struggling to meet the demands of Y2K.

Having failed to take measures to ensure they don't fall foul of the millennium bug, the members of the IBEC-affiliated Small Firms' Association, have brought their begging bowl to the Oireachtas looking for a two-year tax write-off of costs they incur in making themselves compliant.

The SFA's Kieran Crowley told TDs and senators two-thirds of small firms could face temporary closure as a result of Y2K problems and that the cost of compliance for the State's 160,000 small businesses was £400 million.

A tax write-off package was "imperative" to offer sufficient incentive to small firms to ensure they were compliant, he said.

Here's a better idea. The surest incentive for compliance I know of is the knowledge that they may well be out of business unless they invest in the future of their own firms. After all, Y2K is no last-minute shock and firms can have no excuse for lack of planning.