Pádraig O'Sullivan (Cork North Central, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I thank Mr. Tattan for that. I have just one question and a comment as well. Following on from Deputy Ó Laoghaire in relation to reports about what is happening with the Irish language, I spent most of my career teaching Irish and I suppose I would like to think that I know the challenges in terms of what is ahead for the language. Mr. Tattan will not probably respond ahead of the report that the Department will issue but I suppose I would like to put it on the record that I believe that any suggestion of abolishing foundation level Irish would be a mistake. It is a level at which certain children can be reached out to and, in terms of embracing the language, any suggestion that that would be abolished would be a mistake. I hope that that is not the case.

I reinforce what Deputy Ó Laoghaire said in relation to providing an incentive for people to take higher level Irish. For a long time in my teaching career, it was always a challenge to try to get children to continue taking higher level but the more children we can induce to take higher level Irish the better it is for the health and well-being of the language in the long term. With mathematics and applied mathematics, we supplied inducements through bonus points. That is something that needs to be considered for Irish.

My final question is on digital technologies. It was referenced earlier that in the region of €200 million was suppled during the pandemic to get schools up and running in terms of information technology, IT. Is that the level of investment we are likely to see continuing post-Covid given that is the general direction and tread in the teaching methodologies that are used by teachers and the access that students now would have at home as well to today's devices? It is ironic that I am asking this question just after the Chair asked how do we get our children off devices but in terms of learning and the positive benefits that they can supply, is that level of investment likely to continue into the future?