Ms Cróna Gallagher:

In my view the literacy services have improved dramatically over the last 20 years. While the numbers are not what they should be, the quality of the service is much better. Twenty years ago there were people on unaccredited courses; nobody knew how they were progressing or what their levels were. There has been a lot of development work. For example, most of the tuition is now group tuition whereas we had a volunteer literacy service 20 years ago. It is important to mention that. Most people are doing accredited courses. There is room always for unaccredited courses, for example in family learning and so on, but that is there. The other factor that has served to reduce the stigma of literacy programmes is the fact that we are doing ICT courses. There is no stigma attached to somebody saying, "I am hopeless at computers", whereas it is quite different if one cannot read and write. The tutors are very skilled and can build literacy into those programmes. When the learner is confident and comfortable, they can also refer them to other literacy programmes. The quality has improved a lot.