This article is from page 1 of the 2007-09-25 edition of The Clare People. OCR mistakes are to be expected so download the original SWF or the rendered page 1 JPG
THE man most closely identified with the €19 million Ennis Informa- tion Age Town prize admitted this week that expectations were built to a level that could never be attained.
Ten years ago today, the country’s newspapers carried photos of TJ Wa- ters and his Task Force celebrating Ennis’s historic win.
Reflecting on the project’s legacy, Mr Waters admitted that the local Task Force built expectations to a level that they could never attain.
Census statistics now show that En- nis has been eclipsed by Shannon in terms of homes that own a PC, while almost half of Ennis homes have no access to the internet.
Assessing the project’s impact, Mr Waters said, “Ennis will always
be remembered as Ennis Informa- tion Age Town and we certainly got international acclaim and we will never see the like of it again. It was important for us at the time.”
He also said that the project should run over three years. The failed pri- vate IT venture that came out of the (LAT) prize was finally wound up in 2005 — eight years after Ennis won the prize.