LAST month thousands of people began their new year with the click of a mouse. The prospect of credit-card bills looming, these diligent consumers trawled the internet looking for cheaper providers of broadband, mobile, energy or financial services.

The more determined amongst them switched suppliers using price-comparison websites such as uSwitch. com, pricerunner. com and Unravelit. com.

So far, so heartening. Yet the depressing reality is that these bargain-hunters aren't Irish, but rather are British and American consumers taking advantage of the growing number of price-comparison websites covering the multitude of home-service providers in the UK and the US.

Here in Rip-Off Ireland, despite growing consumer irritation with rising prices and an increasingly net-savvy populace, the all-singing, alldancing Irish price-comparison site has yet to emerge.

At first glance it is a baffling state of affairs. Consumers here would surely embrace a concept that delivers, on average, �100 for each supplier switched in the UK. "Ireland is crying out for commercial price-comparison sites, " says Fergal O'Bryne, chief executive of the Irish Internet Association. "There's a groundswell of opinion that a by-product of the Celtic Tiger is home services that are more expensive than they should be."

The complex technology needed to power price-comparison sites already exists and so constitutes no barrier (see box).

But aside from consumer demand and seamless technology, a viable comparison site needs enough competitive services in vertical markets to provide a choice for buyers and to commercially support the websites. It's here that the argument for an Irish site begins to weaken.

Energy is core business for the most successful UK sites but true competition has yet to emerge in the Irish energy market. "Theoretically Ireland has competition in energy but in reality you don't, " says Barry Holloway, marketing director at uSwitch. com.

Back in 2000 USwitch began life dealing in energy and telecoms services but boosted its profits by expanding into other markets such as broadband, digital TV and loans. "We assess if there's a consumer demand as well as suppliers needing to acquire customers, " Holloway explains.

"We're very focused around cross-sell and aren't there to be a churn machine.

That's not sustainable for ourselves or for the suppliers who provide our revenue."

Having a broad breadth of suppliers is vital, as the sites earn their revenue from advertising and for each switch that the site facilitates (see box). Aside from energy, Ireland does have a competitive marketplace for services such as telecoms and financial services. And yet the numbers involved in establishing a price-comparsion site aren't adding up, for the overseas operators at least.

USwitch says it has examined the Irish market but has been put off by its size relative to the UK. Rival site moneysupermarket. com is similarly ambivalent.

"To launch in Ireland would mean a site for a much smaller population and supplier base, " says Richard Mason, managing director of insurance channels at moneysupermarket. com.

Where the commercial world has proved reluctant, the government has tried to fill the gap, in telecoms at least. In a bid to introduce some clarity to the fog of telephone and broadband services, telecoms watchdog Comreg launched a price information website called callcosts. ie in 2005. While it does not facilitate switching, it has brought transparency and "rattled a few cages", in Fergal O'Bryne's opinion.

Some believe local rather than international operators are more likely to persevere and establish a home-services price comparison site.

Xelector is a Dublin-based company that owns UK comparison site Unravelit. com as well as supplying bluechip brands such as Tesco and AOL with software that generates price data on financial services, utilities and telecoms services. The company does not operate in Ireland, so far at least.

"We are trying to find the correct model for Ireland, " says David Kerr, managing director of Xelector. "Ireland is a market we want to be in, having established in the UK."

Kerr and his team believe consumer demand exists for a site and are currently assessing whether there is an appetite amongst Irishbased banks and telecoms providers to support it. "The newer players are more likely than the older incumbent brands to welcome a pricecomparison site because they need the distribution, " Kerr says.

Bank of Scotland (Ireland) is one such newcomer and tells the Sunday Tribune that it would participate in a price-comparison initiative.

"Genuine competition for consumers is always something we have felt strongly about and a fully independent price-comparison website could help promote competition, " a spokeswoman for the bank says.

"We welcome any route through which consumers can gain quicker and more informed access to the best products in the market."

O'Byrne is convinced that Irish suppliers in other markets would embrace a credible, well-branded site. "All the mobile-phone providers were at the launch of callcosts. ie and wanted to be seen to be contributing realtime price comparisons. It's a model that can work in Ireland."

Will Irish consumers ever get to enjoy the same power to supplier-hop as their British and American counterparts?

The possibility of the government providing different market versions of callcosts. ie is remote. O'Byrne is convinced that a more likely scenario is that an overseas commercial player will eventually bolt on an Irish site to their portfolio.

Do players such as moneysupermarket and uSwitch see any potential in the Irish market? USwitch, with the backing of its US parent EW Scripps, is actively looking at new geographical markets to expand into but says Ireland must compete with Holland, France and Germany.

"We'll feed in all the factors - consumer demand, competitive services, supplier support - into a business model and compare those countries, " says uSwitch's Barry Holloway. "I'm sure there's a place for a service like ours in Ireland. I'd love to do it but it's a question of priorities."

For its part, moneysupermarket has placed Germany at the top of its to-do list but doesn't rule out Ireland - if suppliers are willing to play ball. "It will be like King Canute holding back the tide, " says Richard Mason.

"If the ingredients are right and consumers want it, then suppliers can either join the race or get trampled on."

UK home comparison websites

Brand Unique users Active reach (000s) (%) PriceRunner 1,437 4.9 Moneysupermarket 1,239 4.2 uSwitch 605 2.1 SimplySwitch 55 0.2 Moneyfacts 55 0.2 Source: Nielsen/NetRatings

The facts on price-comparison sites

� Data is sourced from the merchants themselves or using 'sitescraping' software that downloads price information from a seller's website in real time or through paid-for data feeds.

� Sites earn revenue by charging the providers whose goods and services are sourced through those sites. Sellers will either pay a fee per user click-through to that seller's website (the 'cost-perclick' model) or for each sale that is made through a site ('cost-peracquisition').

� Price-comparison sites have become sought-after acquisitions.

While price tags for successful sites are not quite in the MySpace or YouTube league, they are significant nonetheless. US media owner EW Scripps bought $525m for Shopzilla in 2005 and last year paid $366m for British site uSwitch. com. In the US, credit giant Experian bought PriceGrabber for $485m.

� The first price-comparison sites such as Kelkoo and ShopGenie date from the late 1990s and were eventually acquired by bigger players