Seán Crowe (Dublin South West, Sinn Fein)
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Question 26: To ask the Minister for Education and Skills his plans to address 2010 OECD findings which found that up to one quarter of teenagers here were functionally illiterate; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [14462/11]

Niall Collins (Limerick, Fianna Fail)
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Question 32: To ask the Minister for Education and Skills when the national literacy strategy will be put in place. [14513/11]

Gerry Adams (Louth, Sinn Fein)
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Question 36: To ask the Minister for Education and Skills the way he intends to address the dramatic fall in Ireland's global ranking in literacy and numeracy from 15 to 25 in mathematics and 5 to 17 in reading. [14464/11]

Ruairi Quinn (Dublin South East, Labour)
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I propose to take Questions Nos. 26, 32 and 36 together.

The very disappointing and worrying declines in the performance of Irish 15-year olds on PISA literacy and mathematics tests between 2000 and 2009 point to the urgent need to improve the literacy and numeracy standards of our students. The Government in fully committed to reversing these declines as indicated in the Programme for Government which has been endorsed by the Dáil.

My Department is preparing a National Literacy and Numeracy Strategy which will contain a series of specific actions to improve the teaching and learning of literacy and numeracy in our schools and early childhood settings. My Department is currently analysing the outcomes of a wide-ranging consultation process and is finalising the strategy and I hope to launch it at the end of this month.