Fidelma Healy Eames (Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

Our future is digital. At a presentation recently by the European Commissioner for the Digital Agenda, Neelie Kroes, she pointed out that by 2015 Europe will have 700,000 IT posts that cannot be filled because the skills are not available. I am shocked that we are doing as well as eighth out of 19th in the OECD league table of ratios of computers to classrooms because I believed we were a long way behind.

We know students are not applying for IT courses at third level because they do not have the confidence in their own abilities. What is new at second level that will encourage take-up of third level courses? I have a boy in leaving certificate and a daughter in first year but I have not seen anything new in this respect in their curriculum. Nationally, we are relying on CoderDojo, a voluntary movement, to teach the languages of Scratch, HTML and others. These need to be taught in our schools. Will they be part of the programme described by Mr. Ward? What will be the outcomes and will the Department be measuring it against the take-up of third level IT courses? IT companies in Ireland are looking for the Government to issue technology work visas because our young people are not coming out with the right qualifications to take up the posts. We know we are failing in this regard.

If we want to show children and parents about this switchover, then homework should be put on an Internet platform. Are there any plans in that regard? The future is digital and I am glad it has been recognised as a literacy. We really need to make serious progress here.