Jan O'Sullivan (Limerick City, Labour) | Oireachtas source

I wish to advise Deputy Charlie McConalogue that I will meet the Minister for Communications, Energy and Natural Resources, Deputy Alex White, in the next week or two to engage on these issues. Approximately 3.5% of primary schools are still on connections of less than 2 MB, of which approximately half are awaiting the installation of improved services of 8 MB or higher. The other half are the subject of current tenders under the framework. More than 80% of primary school projects will be put out to tender in the first half of 2015 as their current contracts expire. It is expected that this will lead to improved services. We are moving on this albeit I acknowledge that there are schools, particularly in isolated areas and certain parts of the country, where speeds are not as good as they should be.

I note to Deputy Naughten that I would be very encouraging of schools, but we must give them the high speed connections and the resources. We are doing that. I acknowledge that progress has been much better at post-primary level than primary, but it is probably the right approach to ensure that all post-primary schools have high-speed connections as a priority. We are moving in the other area and I have seen examples where school websites are used to communicate with parents and there has been a reduction in paper-based activity. Some schools are doing what Deputy Naughten suggests we should do in all of them.

In an earlier response, I said we hoped to have more resources with the recovery. We have extra funding in education for the first time this year and I intend to ensure that we get more next year. The area referred to by Deputy Naughten will certainly be given attention.

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