First we had the Smaller Companies Market, which attracted companies of the calibre of Superwood, Sportsfield and Classic Thoroughbreds. Now or at least for the past year or so we have had the Developing Companies Market (DCM) as the Irish Stock Exchange's answer to accusations that the Dublin market offered nothing to small companies wanting to access capital.

Well, the DCM was a well-intentioned move by the people who run the Stock Exchange, offering smaller companies a cheaper, less onerous way to market. But the take up from the SME sector to the exchange's initiative has been disappointing with just three companies BCO, ITG and Rapid Technology on the DCM.

Suparule may be joining the DCM next week, but there is no indication of any flood of new entrants to the fledgling market, with most potential SME public companies apparently biding their time sometimes with the backing of venture capital until they qualify for a full listing or else looking to more established small-capitalisation markets such as London's AIM or even Nasdaq.

The flood of high-technology companies expected to take listings in the next couple of years have no interest in a market like the DCM what they want is the credibility that the combination of a full listing and Nasdaq quote brings. And even the three companies currently on the DCM probably only see that listing as a stepping-stone to a full quote.

Quite frankly, BCO, the rapidly-expanding ITG and Rapid Technology, are all good enough to justify an upgrading. New entrant Suparule will, of course, have to serve a "probationary" period on the DCM before it can aspire to the greater recognition a full market listing brings.

At the time the exchange set up the DCM, there was a perceived need for such a market. The question that the exchange must ponder now is whether there is still a need for a market like the DCM.