Mary Hanafin (Dún Laoghaire, Fianna Fail)

It is unfortunate that computers go out of date so quickly. Despite considerable investment in hardware in recent years, it can be difficult to keep it up to date. Our priority in the past couple of years had to be on networking and broadband — there was not much point in schools having computers if they did not have this connectivity. The existing broadband access is perfectly adequate for the type of work that schools are doing. For the most part, they are not downloading files and much of the work involves using particular software for educational purposes. I have seen this in use in schools.

While we will introduce a new programme in the NDP, industry also has a major role to play. Industry is constantly asking for more computers to be installed in schools. Industry, as well as computer manufacturers, benefits most from such investment. Whereas industry played a part in the broadband roll-out, there is an opportunity for it to get involved in investing in school hardware. If a child is using a particular model in school, he or she will want to use the same model at home. This could complement what we are trying to do in the schools.

The census asked questions about technical support and it found that 68% of primary schools and 55% of post-primary schools use the services of IT contractors without fixed contracts, while others had fixed contracts. Of course, there is also ICT co-ordinating teachers within education centres and they play an important role in providing technical support. If one's computer does not work, one is able to call someone to have it fixed and it is important that a school should have that facility as well. This is one of the issues I am examining in the overall strategy.

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