Marie Louise O'Donnell (Independent) | Oireachtas source

We must be careful, when talking about computers and IT not being available in schools, about saying that the school or the children are therefore weak. There are many thousands of ways whereby young people can be assessed. For me, numeracy and literacy are fundamental to that. Of course, the witnesses are correct, as is everything they are doing. I agree with Senator Craughwell that an amalgamation with the education and training boards would be huge. However, one must be careful in talking about weaknesses as a result of there being no computers in schools. There are huge weaknesses in respect of reading, writing and arithmetic, which are the fundamentals of even learning how to control a computer as opposed to having it control the person.