Using a digital signature President Mary McAleese brings into law new legislation designed to enable online business.
President Mary McAleese signed in new legislation to allow companies and citizens to do business over the internet.
This was a signing ceremony with a difference at Áras an Uachtaráin, the president used an electronic signature on the new e-commerce bill.
She became the first person to use an electronic signature which have full equivalent recognition to handwritten ones.
The E-Commerce Act enables people to carry out business over the internet.
John Gaffney, William Fry Solicitors, says that the bill provides legal certainty around conducting business online.
Electronic signatures are not like traditional signatures but rather are an encoded sequence of characters associated with a person at a given time.
Despite there being thirty amendments to the bill, politicians on all sides of the house have made sure that the bill went through the Dáil before the summer recess.
The act is designed to allow Ireland to become a hub for e-commerce business.
Frances Buggy, chair of the Irish Internet Association, says the act allows companies to offer new services that previously were not available online. Customers will now benefit from a broad range of online services.
The E-Commerce Act will become operable in August.
An RTÉ News report broadcast on 10 July 2000. The reporter is Anthony Murnane.
