Brendan Smith (Cavan-Monaghan, Fianna Fail)
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Question 108: To ask the Minister for Education and Skills the surveys that have been carried out on adult literacy rates since the major report published in 1997 and his plans in this regard. [8210/11]

Ciarán Cannon (Galway East, Fine Gael)
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The last major survey of adult literacy in Ireland was the survey referred to by the Deputy - the OECD International Adult Literacy Survey (IALS) which was carried out in 1995 and published in 1997. My Department is funding Ireland's participation in a new international adult literacy survey - the Programme for the International Assessment of Adult Competencies (PIAAC). PIAAC is being organised by the OECD and is being administered in Ireland by the Central Statistics Office (CSO). The survey is scheduled to be conducted in August 2011 and results are expected to be published in 2013.

PIAAC involves surveying adults (between the ages of 16-64) in their homes on a range of skills covering the interest, attitude and capacity of individual adults to access, manage, understand, integrate and evaluate various types of information (principally text and numerical) as well as to respond and communicate with others in the information age. It will focus on the key cognitive and workplace skills that are required for successful participation in the economy and society of the 21st century.