The Dublin firm counts Tesco among its partners for its British service and is in negotiations with a major internet portal, but managing director David Kerr said it planned to launch the service itself in Ireland due to a lack of suitable online partners.

If the service is a success, the firm plans to launch a price comparison website along the lines of its British site, www. unravelit. com.

"Ireland lags behind other markets in terms of comparison shopping. But it is our home market so we want to be in it and we think the best way of doing this is on our own footing, starting with carbon offsetting, " Kerr said.

Consumers can use the service to offset their household carbon emissions by buying European carbon credits from Xelector. These credits are then "retired", reducing the number of carbon credits available to the large industries involved in the European carbon trading scheme.

"The ultimate aim is to cause the price of credits to rise to a point where industries cannot afford them and have to retool to become cleaner, " said Kerr.

He said, however, that Xelector did not view the offsetting business as a major revenue-generating opportunity. It sells its credits for around Euro3.80 each, considerably less than the majority of offsetting websites.

Kerr admitted its British offsetting business would provide "a nice cross-sell opportunity" for the gas and electricity comparison products that form the backbone of the company's business.

Over four million British homes changed their gas and electricity suppliers last year and Xelector has become the number one provider of comparison and switching technology to British websites.

Last year, the firm, which employs 14 people, had an estimated turnover of around Euro2m. It is the sole survivor of the Enba group, founded by internet entrepreneur Gerhard Huber during the dotcom boom as an incubator for several internet ventures.