It also shows that one-fifth of school computers are not working due to their age or the lack of technical support and there is less than one computer for every ten students.

Last month a report commissioned by Education Minister Mary Hanafin said the €252 million funding earmarked for ICT in schools over the next seven years would still leave Irish schools lagging behind most EU states. It would provide €46 only for each primary and second-level student every year, a figure which was well below the level of investment in other EU states, the report said. 

INTO general secretary John Carr has accused the Government on more than one occasion of failing to invest in this key area. He claims that primary schools have had "no government funding whatsoever towards the purchase, upgrade, maintenance or repair of computers for five years".

"This is the digital equivalent of Nero fiddling while Rome burned," Mr Carr said.

The Teachers' Union of Ireland (TUI) has remarked that the ICT structure in schools has more in common with the Third World than with an economically successful EU state.

In recent times, Minister Hanafin has indicated that there is little hope of additional funding for ICT in schools. While it would be "lovely" to be able to put "an awful lot more into computers", the Government's priority was to keep the economy on track in these times of global financial uncertainty, the Minister said. (Source: Irish Times)