Tommy Broughan (Dublin North East, Labour)

On behalf of the children of Bonnybrook, Priorswood and Darndale in my constituency and those in other areas, I thank the Minister for rowing back on the planned cuts in respect of the DEIS programme. This is a significant and important development for the children to whom I refer.

I sometimes feel that in respect of the matter to which I have just referred and in the context of others, the Minister has become a sort of prisoner of Marlborough Street. He will recall that we had one or two meetings in respect of other matters at his office in the Department of Education and Skills and I am of the view that the culture which obtains in that institution has captured him. The Minister just read out exactly the same reply which he gave to me on two previous occasions since this Dáil came into being. I am not referring to information and communications technology, giving children laptops or making them familiar with computers, I am referring rather to computer science. The chairman of Google, Eric Schmidt, recently criticised the British education system and stated that the country which invented computers had lost sight of the fact that there is a need to embed computer-related subjects in the school curriculum. I refer, here, to programming and analytical mathematics. The Minister will be aware that one of Ireland's great mathematicians, Mr. William Rowan Hamilton, invented the quaternions that are used in computer gaming.

There is evidence that from a very young age children can become interested in computers and there are even babies who can use iPads. I am aware that the Minister is computer literate and I wish to impress on him the need to foster a situation whereby children might be exposed to computers right throughout primary level. I have in my possession a very simple curriculum which includes subjects such as an introduction to programming, computing and data analysis, robotics and web design. We need to familiarise children with these subjects and then include them on the curriculum.

It was stated recently that there are approximately 5,000 vacancies in the ICT industry here and that these cannot be filled from among the ranks of our young people because they do not have the necessary skills. The Minister referred earlier to the great Donogh O'Malley who introduced free second level education. If the Minister is seeking a big idea, then perhaps it could revolve around enabling children to take computer science as a fully-fledged subject right the way up to leaving certificate level. He should try to break free from the chains that have been put around him in Marlborough Street.

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