The Government signalled a renewed focus on information technology yesterday, formally adopting a package of measures designed to place the Republic to the fore of the digital age. The Taoiseach, Mr Ahern, said the action plan, Implementing the Information Society in Ireland, covered telecommunications, electronic commerce, legislation and other issues, and set out a framework for progress.

Most of the measures have already been published elsewhere - such as in documents by the Information Society Commission, and the report of the Advisory Committee on Telecommunications.

Mr Ahern said the Government regarded the "information society" as a matter of national importance. "A comprehensive and co-ordinated approach to its implementation, under agreed target dates, is required," he said.

"Individual departments and agencies will normally be responsible for completing specific elements of the plan, but complementary structures are needed to monitor progress and to support implementation at a central level."

"We are at the early stages of a new industrial revolution - one which will have more dramatic implications that any other single industrial development in the history of the State," the plan says.