Marie Moloney (Labour) | Oireachtas source

I will be brief as, unfortunately, I must leave for a debate in the Seanad. On the issue of computers, I come from a rural area where there is a small rural school. It barely has enough room for the students in the classrooms. In one school, the resource teaching takes place in the hallway because there is no room. When it comes to having enough computers to cater for all of the students and to have time to go on the computers, in practical terms the room, space and time are not available.

With regard to literacy, since the introduction of smart phones and other devices I have noticed that young people's spelling has become atrocious. It is lazy. There is also predictive text. One sees "4" instead of "for" and "u" instead of "you". That impacts on them with regard to the written word because with computers one can do a spell check and so forth. Will that aspect make a person lazy in their written English?