Denis Naughten (Roscommon-Galway, Independent) | Oireachtas source

Will Ms Rantala answer one question for me? She specifically mentioned satellite education. Five of the islands have second-level schools, every one of which has high-speed broadband. In fairness, the then-Minister, Pat Rabbitte delivered that and started with the islands first. How has use of broadband developed the range of subjects in those five schools? She may not be able to answer that now and I am not putting her to the pin of her collar today but it would be interesting if Comhdháil Oileáin na hÉireann could come back to us so we can see how broadband has changed the delivery of the subject range for students on those five islands in order that we could look at replicating that. It is a significant element. I may be corrected, but a number of island schools come under the ETBs, which means it is their responsibility to provide that broad range and not only for islands.

I represent a part of the country in east Galway where we have a lot of small second level schools with a limited subject range. We are not using the broadband capacity in some of the ETBs that are covering a number of island communities as well as my part of east Galway. I ask Ms Rantala to come back to the committee on that specific issue, not necessarily today but at a later date. I apologise for cutting across her.