Mr. Peter Mullan:

Deputy Charlie McConalogue spoke about the digital divide. Unfortunately, there are several digital divides.

For example, there are digital divides between the home where connectivity is not an issue and the school where it is and between the home where funding and ICT support are not issues and the school where they are. There is also a major digital divide on the island between North and South, given the planning and implementation of ICT programmes in schools in the counties in the North compared to what is happening down here. These divides need to be tackled. We are all in agreement that funding and connectivity are the baseline issues that need to be tackled.

Deputy Jonathan O'Brien mentioned the issue of technical support. One mechanism for providing support that could be considered is the education and training boards, ETBs, which could be utilised to push out organised technical support for many primary schools.

Deputy Jim Daly stated we had not mentioned teacher training. We mentioned colleges of education and made several references to continuous professional development. At the heart of our presentation on best practice was an example - the digital schools of distinction programme. This is probably not just best practice in Ireland but also in many countries.

Senator Averil Power mentioned funding. There must be a five year plan. There is no point in putting money in place on a one year basis. It needs to be actioned over a number of years. Deputy Ciarán Cannon is right, this is a once in a generation opportunity to do something significant. His analysis of where we are vis-à-visother countries is right, as we are being left behind every year we fail to invest in IT in schools and connect them to the outside world.