The integrated ticketing system will enable commuters to use a single pre-paid smart card for travel on all buses, trains, trams and coaches in greater Dublin.

IBM says the technology has the capacity to process up to two million transactions a day and can be extended to include other value added services such as Internet top-ups and small value retail payments.

The system will eliminate the need to carry cash to pay for tickets and ensures fast, secure and convenient transactions, with cards simply re-charged as needed, says the vendor.

The project - part of Ireland's EUR34 billion "Transport 21" investment programme - is already under way, with a phased deployment of the live system expected to begin in late 2009.

The IBM back-office system will provide ticket and smart card management, central reconciliation and settlement services to all public transport providers. IBM will run integrated ticketing application software from MSI Global, which it worked with on a similar system in Singapore in 2006.

David O'Callaghan, chairman of the integrated ticketing project board, which is overseeing the project, says: "We are delighted to be able to link up with such a significant scheme as Singapore and to have a world leader like IBM overseeing the development."

IBM is already working on transport systems in London, Stockholm, Singapore and Brisbane.

In London the Oyster smart card system has been a success, with millions of cards issued, but fears have been raised about the security of technology. Earlier this year Dutch scientists managed to use a cloned card to travel around on the city's underground for free after reversing the algorithmic code of NXP's Mifare Classic RFID chip, which is used for millions of smart cards around the world.

After successive outages in the summer, Transport for London terminated its contract with the EDS and Cibic Transys consortium, and will go to tender for a new operator to take over the running of Oyster from 2010.