The 9th of September next year could see unanticipated problems in some computer systems similar to those forecast for January 1st, 2000, the Minister of State for Science, Technology and Commerce, Mr Treacy, has said.

Mr Treacy warned that on the ninth day of the ninth month next year, certain older computer systems might have trouble reading fields with only the letter `9'. This digit is read as an infinity symbol in some computer languages and could cause certain programs to fail.

Mr Treacy said the Taoiseach, Mr Ahern, would address a conference in UCD on the problem on September 9th next.