Ms Elizabeth Waters:

What Dr. Mathers said is the truth. One of the things we would be aware of is to ask the question about who in Ireland is affected by the digital divide today. We work in disadvantaged communities right across the country and they are the same people we work with in west Tallaght. They are struggling with poverty and social exclusion every day. Their lives are somewhat depressed and chaotic and they struggle. They are full of fear with no self-confidence or self-belief. There is a lack of motivation. We know community organisations on the ground know how to take that on as an issue and change it. We can encourage people in and they will cross over the door. It takes courage to come in but we know our learners and we can work with them to build their confidence and skills. Some 48% of people in west Tallaght do not have access to a computer. They do not have one and they only have access to one when they come into us. Virtually every single one of them has a smartphone, however. Do they utilise it? No, they do not utilise it in any way close to the extent to which it could be used to support them. Can we build their digital skills? That is where we start.

With Accenture, we have built a most amazing assessment tool that Accenture has poured hundreds of thousands of euro into developing with us. That assessment tool is accessible and easy-to-use and we can encourage our learners to use it and to assess themselves. If we are talking about the skills gap, one of the things we need to be scared witless about is the lack of knowledge and understanding, particularly about safety and about people's digital footprint and digital identity. Many of the learners we work with do not have a clue about that. That is a key place to start. They can go on this assessment tool and when they get back their results they can be pointed in the direction of a range of resources that can either be used in a community, in a learning hub or on their own. They can be pointed towards how to engage and how to build their skills.

It is the same as the work we have been doing with literacy for years. If we remember how bad things were 20 to 30 years ago when NALA started, that is where we are today. We are excluding half of our adult population from actively participating in this new world. Basic digital skills are the first step. Then we need a progression pathway. That involves our work with Microsoft to see how we can build that pathway so there is a clear progression pathway. How would Future Now Digital's initiative that was referred to look like in Ireland? It would look like having a tripartite strong national relationship with the public sector, the corporate sector and the community sector with all the knowledge, skills and resources they are willing to employ to solve complex social problems. An Cosán is happy to support that process, as the Good Things Foundation has done, but it is key that we look to a way of having an integrated national solution to this national problem. We can do it. I do not know if Mr. Marshall thinks we can do it at a corporate level.