Small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) who operate without dedicated IT staff could be damaging their productivity, a new report suggests.

Data gathered by BT Ireland found that SMEs that operate without any dedicated IT support staff lose around 15 per cent of their working week dealing with computer problems.

Without a specialist, managers and other employees have to fill in and deal with IT problems when they should be doing something else.

Nearly half (44 per cent) of the businesses said that employing an IT professional was too expensive, despite the fact that two thirds of the SMEs admitted that IT was now vital for business efficiency.

Recently, Vodafone reported that many office workers considered internet access a human right.

In fact, one in ten female workers said they would rather give up their right to vote than lose access to the internet.

"Internet access is now such an important part of life that we regard it as a modern civil liberty, according to seven in ten of those polled," explained a Vodafone spokesperson.