A couple of months ago, I was contacted by a grandfather whose granddaughter was told she needed to have an iPad in school and needed to pay €500 for an iPad. It is an absolutely crazy situation where we have free education in this country and yet many schools impose this massive burden on families, many of whom simply cannot afford it. I accept the Minister has written to schools saying they cannot make these compulsory but it is not wiping this practice out across the board. The costs are absolutely staggering and are rising each year. We need to have some analysis on whether it is good for children to be using iPads, laptops and so on. The Department of education has gone all-in on so-called ed tech without much real scrutiny of whether it is beneficial. That is what is driving schools to tell parents that the kids have to have an iPad, tablet or Chromebook. We need independent analysis of whether and when technology is beneficial in the classroom instead of just dancing to the tune of big tech as we do in so many other areas is of policy. Obviously if the Department is going to insist on ed tech being used, it needs to fully fund it. Instead, it has cut the grant scheme for ICT infrastructure for schools by 30%. It provides no funding for repair and maintenance of digital devices. We have a bit of a cruel joke whereby schoolbooks are being made free, which is great, but on the other hand we are using them less and instead parents are being forced to pay more and more for technology. The one issue I have with the motion is the idea that there should be a loan scheme for parents to buy laptops or iPads for their children. We are supposed to have free primary and secondary education in this country. I know we are a long way off from it in reality but we should not be legitimising the idea that parents should be forced into debt to fund their children's education. Instead, we should be demanding that the Government fully fund the cost of education for every child in this country.

Sentiment score: 0.03