Age is no barrier when it comes to using computers. People of all ages are using technology, but increasingly, older people, often living in isolated areas, are using e-mail to keep in touch with their far-flung families, using the Internet to keep abreast of developments in Ireland and around the world and using their PCs to play computer games.

But it doesn't stop there. People with disabilities or mobility problems are realising the benefits of being in constant communication with others without ever leaving their homes.

And now, the Government has joined in a national effort to get even more people in the older age group involved in IT, and shortly will launch a series of training schemes for retired people, or those about to retire, in a number of centres around the State.

Anyone who can use a typewriter can use a computer and, often, it's people who have never used a keyboard who make the most successful converts. The mystique is often the most off-putting aspect of starting to use them.

One of the targets of the United Nations Year of Older Persons in Ireland is to encourage more older people to start using IT. In conjunction with Microsoft, the software giant whose European headquarters are in Sandyford, Dublin, the UN Year of Older Persons is offering six PCs, each worth £1,000, free in a competition which will run in Education and Living between now and Christmas.

In advance of the start of the competition, Microsoft selected two older people whom it considered would benefit from having PCs. Both are very active retired people: JJ Byrne, aged 89, who runs Glasnevin Senior Citizens Centre in Dublin and who has been writing a book (on an old PC) on Dublin's Theatre Royal, and Jean Darling, a former Rascal, or better known to younger readers as Miss Poppy on RTE, who sells souvenirs of her theatrical past on a PC that is past its sell-by date.

Each month, starting this month, you will be asked three questions. Tick the box with your selected answers, then complete the slogan "I wish to win a Microsoft PC because . . . " in fewer than 10 words.

Return this completed entry form by post to PC Competition, PO Box 6094, Dublin 2; or if you already have a PC, send your entry by e-mail to momeara@irish-times.ie.

Question 1: The main Web browser rival to Microsoft's Internet Explorer is:

(a) Linux

(b) Netscape Navigator

(c) Lotus Notes

Question 2: A major computer company has a manufacturing plant in Leixlip, Co Kildare. Is it:

(a) Intel

(b) IBM

(c) Hewlett Packard

Question 3: The founder and chairman of Microsoft is:

(a) Steve Jobs

(b) Tony O'Reilly

(c) Bill Gates