Dude, IRC is dead. If you have any $$$ invested in such a venture then get out quick - similar to the way WWW/HTML killed off FTP, IM & RSS are wiping out any reason to go near IRC (apart from dodgy porn, and copies of software/music/videos that are already all over the p2p networks. IRC wll end up as the internet version of a tippmann. Entry level. Few features. Despised by most. there's my prediction for 2005.
If people Ii.e. non tech savvy users) need to install things that they don't read about in the papers every day for them to access things then it just won't happen. Which is why the web became ubiquitous, as has imesh & Kazaa. As will RSS & IM. IRC et al will stick as a hobbyist topic - which means few users (aka pumps?!) ...once MS drop longhorn it will be the equivalent of what happened when they dropped IP & IE into w95...you may debate, but it will change how j.bloggs uses his PC - that is for certain