Mr. Aidan Dunning:

I thank Deputy Dowds. He is correct that in 2011 we did not achieve the degree of spend we had anticipated on the project but things have moved in a good direction since then. As the Deputy might recall, we started off initially with a 78 school pilot project which worked out quite well. Since then we have added an additional 202 second level schools in 2012 which have been equipped with 100 MB. The schools are located in counties Cavan, Clare, Donegal, Galway, Laois, Leitrim, Longford, Louth, Mayo, Monaghan, Offaly, Roscommon, Sligo and Westmeath. In 2013, the next phase of the roll-out of 216 schools will be in Dublin, Meath and Kildare. The remaining post-primary schools, approximately 215, will have broadband rolled out in 2014. We expect to have the whole scheme completed by 2014.

To set it up we had to liaise with the Department of Education and Skills, which is making a contribution to the scheme on funding terms, particularly on the current side, on an ongoing basis. Also, HEAnet is pivotal in terms of the delivery of the scheme. Some preparatory work had to be done that took a little longer than we thought would be the case but the reality is that it is happening in those schools in those counties. The key is to make sure it is working and is supplied properly in the schools. We are liaising closely with our colleagues. My colleagues in the Department had a meeting with the Department of Education and Skills last week to ensure that we evaluate that the taxpayer is getting good value for money for this very important initiative because as the Deputy said, the Minister rightly attaches a great deal of importance to it. If we consider the skills the workforce of the future requires, they are in the digital area. If we do not have the infrastructure in the school to enable those skills to be imparted, we have a deficit. As a Department we are centrally involved in promotion of the digital society and we are happy to put aside from our relatively small capital resources the amount of money we have put aside to date, and will continue to do so on the basis I have set out.