Ciarán Cannon (Galway East, Fine Gael)
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First, I welcome Mr. John Fitzsimons and Mr. Steven Daly to Leinster House. I had the privilege of visiting Camara Ireland almost two years ago at its Chapelizod site. I am a huge fan of social entrepreneurship and these guys epitomise the very best of that sector. They are using resources that at times simply would be discarded and not used to anybody's great advantage. They are employing people and certainly are empowering young people both in Ireland and across much of the world to avail of a whole new learning opportunity of which they may not have been able to avail in the past. They also are tapping into and nurturing to an extent a wonderful learning revolution that is under way both here in Ireland and globally. I would argue that Irish schools are at present more than capable not alone of playing a part in that revolution but in leading it. We have an organisation in Ireland that has been in existence for more than 40 years called the Computers in Education Society of Ireland, CESI. It is comprised of teachers who are experts in the use of technology in education, expert in digital learning and expert in sharing resources among themselves. That society is attempting, as are other organisations such as CoderDojo, the Excited Digital Learning Movement, Camara Ireland and others working in that sector, to bring together all that expertise, to share the knowledge that has been accumulated by exceptionally talented, committed and trailblazing teachers and to use it to empower others and to eliminate the fear.

Ultimately, Mr. Daly's point is correct, in that much of it is about that first fear of engaging with the new learning opportunity. For example, just last year the Government launched a competition called MATHletes, which uses the Khan Academy platform. It is a free platform that does not cost the school, participant, student or parent anything to use. It is an excellent global philanthropic learning resource and a significantly increased number of young people and teachers now can be seen using that resource here in Irish schools. It is often that first venture or foray into a whole new world of learning and it is often more challenging for the teacher than it is for the young person involved. Young people are now to be seen engaging in the learning process in a completely different way. One can see a tearing down of the walls of the school because, for example, in Khan Academy, again like the system mentioned by Mr. Fitzsimons, each child's performance can be monitored, as can the amount of time spent on a particular subject matter and their attainment level in that subject matter. A lot of exciting things are happening and Camara Ireland is an excellent example of what can be done when one puts together heads that have the expertise, passion and commitment to deliver on what is possible.