The IE Domain Registry (IEDR), the managed registry for Ireland’s official internet address .ie, announced the 10 recipients of the company’s €100,000 OPTIMISE Fund at a presentation attended by Tánaiste Eamon Gilmore at the official opening of the company’s new office in Dun Laoghaire.

By utilising new online technologies, the recipients will be better placed to harness the potential of the Internet as a 24 hour sales and marketing channel through which to gain competitive advantage in an online marketplace.

Announcing the recipients, Tánaiste Eamon Gilmore said: “I congratulate IEDR on 10 years’ work in creating an important brand for Ireland in .ie, which McAfee has consistently credited with being one of the world’s safest and most trusted domain names. The company’s Domain Name Industry Report highlights that the company has its finger on the pulse of issues facing small businesses today and this initiative provides welcome support and complements a range of Government initiatives such as those supported by the County Enterprise Boards, An Post and Enterprise Ireland designed to develop Irish businesses’ trade prospects online.”

Congratulating the recipients, David Curtin, chief executive of the IE Domain Registry, said: “Our annual Domain Name Industry Report found that just 66% of Irish businesses had a website by 2009 and of those, only 21% had any kind of e-commerce functionality, an increase of just 3% since 2000. Our decision, therefore, to establish the OPTIMISE Fund on our 10th anniversary was to highlight that Irish companies need to make more of their presence online if they are to compete in a marketplace that demands e-commerce capability”