The State’s “digital champion” Lord David Puttnam is disappointed with the progress of the National Digital Strategy among small and medium businesses but says the scheme is making good progress in other areas.

Lord Putnam said the digital strategy has made “pleasantly surprising” progress in education and in helping elderly people to use the internet but “SMEs haven’t done as well as I’d hoped”.

One of the core aspects of the digital strategy, which was launched one year ago, was to provide grants of up to €2,500 to encourage SMEs to build an online presence. Research conducted as part of the strategy found that tens of thousands of Irish small firms do not trade online and were losing valuable opportunities to access larger markets, increase revenue and acquire better market intelligence.

Speaking at the National Digital Strategy update conference in Dublin today (thu), Lord Puttnam said more than 1,000 of these “trade online” grants had been given out so far.

Lord Puttnam, a multi-award winning former film producer, said he was “broadly encouraged” by Ireland’s progress but added “I think we’re being a little slow. I think we could do with more of a sense of urgency.”

But he said this was a common problem in virtually all European governments, with the possible exception of Estonia. “I think the world is changing and individuals are changing much quicker than Government is responding.”

He added: “Many people I talked to, certainly in the UK, kind of wish this wasn’t happening; it’s very inconvenient. The problem is, it is happening.”

Minister for Communications Pat Rabbitte told the conference that some 47,000 small companies in Ireland either don’t have a web presence or do business online.

Addressing the audience via Skype from a school on Arranmore Island, Co Donegal, he announced a further €400,000 in funding for a digital training programme. Digital technology, he said, is “the way of the future”.