The Republic could strengthen its allure as an investment location for e-commerce companies by offering attractive taxation policies to such ventures.

Speaking at Taxation 2000, a conference exploring developments in international taxation and technology issues, Mr Patrick McSweeney of HLB VF Nathan said: "Ireland's tax policy, educated work force and government investment in telecommunications are some of the tools which will achieve for Ireland in terms of e-commerce, what the financial services industry has achieved for Dublin."

He suggested e-commerce companies could split the location of their front and back office operations to take advantage of beneficial tax rates. "Expense sharing can be arranged so that the front office experiences higher profits and takes advantage of lower tax rates in Ireland," Mr McSweeney said.