Mr. Dalton Tattan:

I thank the Deputy for those questions. I will ask one or two of my colleagues to come in to answer some of them. On the matter of guidance counsellors, we have sought to restore the various posts that were lost during the leaner years. They have now been fully restored at this point. In terms of further posts, beyond what we currently have, that is something that would have to be considered in the context of any discussions on priorities.

Mr. Moran may have some statistics on the Deputy's question about computer science. If they are not readily available here and now, we can send those statistics to the Deputy. We have that information. There are some new subjects, including, for example, physical education.

We are keen to encourage schools to take these up and make them as broadly available for students as they can be so that they are accessible.

I will take the issue of the broadband plan away and provide the Deputy with some information through other colleagues. Nobody at the meeting is directly involved in that at the moment. I agree with the Deputy on the implementation. For some time there has been a strong feeling that there is a need for reform. That has been talked about in the public domain for some time, particularly with the leaving certificate more than just the senior cycle more generally. I concur with the view that minds have been concentrated in recent years. The issue has been around for a while but it has reached the point where we need to look closely at it. Compared with systems in other jurisdictions, many positives have come out of the past few years in terms of the willingness of teachers to step up to the plate and in their public service commitment and collaboration to do things that were untested before. I mention the voice of students as well. The level of resilience in our system was exposed. Other countries that relied more heavily on continuous assessment, project work, school-based assessment and so on were better placed to pivot and cope than Ireland was because we rely a lot on an external assessment and a terminal exam. I ask Mr. Moran to provide statistics on the computer science subject.