Mr. Steven Daly:

Our e-mail addresses are in the presentation so if any member wishes to contact us afterwards, we will be delighted to respond.

I will respond first on the point about literacy and numeracy and the use of ICT. I agree that ICT is not a silver bullet. It never will be. The delivery of a nice shiny set of laptops or desktops to a classroom will never solve any problems. We have learned that and we are strong advocates of that opinion. It is important to acknowledge that from the start. However, ICT is a very effective tool that facilitates many extra programmes and more innovative and different methods of learning that otherwise would not be possible or as easily possible without that tool. Again, it is a useless tool unless it is in the right hands, just as a blackboard is a useless tool if it is not in the right or correctly trained hands. That is the reason the software, content, training, support and infrastructure around it are even more important than the tools themselves. We have learned that lesson over the last ten years and that is the reason the Camara Ireland programme has developed the way it has, to include the supports, training, software and content to address those issues.