John Bruton
Question:1 Mr. J. Bruton asked the Taoiseach the total amount spent by the Information Society Commission to date; and its expenditure plans for the remainder of 1998. [12665/98]
Ceisteanna—Questions. - Information Society Commission.
The Information Society Commission's budget for 1998 is £500,000, included in the Vote of my Department. Expenditure to the end of May amounted to £120,000.
Some of the key activities undertaken by the commission so far and reflected in this figure are: the publication and launch of its first report in February; participation in the Young Scientist Exhibition in January; the provision of speakers for conferences and seminars on the information society; and development of the commission's website.
The commission will focus primarily on the delivery of its awareness raising programme for the remainder of the year, with expenditure plans for a public relations consultancy to advise on and engage in awareness raising programmes for the information society; a research consultancy on learning in the information society; the organisation of seminars and conferences; and undertaking a further survey with regard to benchmarking awareness for the information society.
The budget also includes a provision for salary costs in respect of the secretariat to the commission.
What are the Taoiseach's views on the startling finding of the Information Society Commission to the effect that 46 per cent of men in the workforce indicated they were not willing to learn about information technology while only 20 per cent of women indicated an unwillingness in view of the dominance of information technology in new job opportunities, and what does the Government propose to do about that?
Arising from the information in the report published in February, and a great deal of other information, the interdepartmental committee of the implementation group was set up. A major element of the action programme arising out of that is to increase awareness in this area. The committee has set about a comprehensive programme not just to address the question of the number of men and women using IT but to increase awareness of it.
The commission launched a widespread public awareness campaign in conjunction with many other organisations. It availed of commercial sponsorship opportunities and highlighted the benefits the information society would bring to the lives of ordinary people. It tried to prove that it was not simply a case of high technology in the workplace but that other benefits would accrue from the use of technology. The survey showed that people were unaware of these benefits. They did not believe information technology was relevant to their everyday lives.
The commission has attempted to build on the positive aspects highlighted in the original survey of the steering committee. In addition, it works with initiatives already in place to reach target groups and learning organisations, including community bodies. It is working on small and medium enterprises because the research has shown that SMEs do not see that information technology is relevant to them. The commission has also targeted major opinion leaders and the general public, including minority groups. All that work is useful. The commission is trying to convince people that awareness of information technology is important.
Having attended a number of meetings, read the research extensively and listened to presentations, it is obvious the commission will not succeed in its work overnight. It will take some time before the IT programme launched by the Minister for Education and Science, Deputy Martin, and myself before Christmas will result in large numbers of people being aware of the relevance of information technology. The Information Society Commission is adamant that it can dramatically increase the figures given and I believe it will succeed.
I thank the Taoiseach for reading all that material from his brief but why does he believe 46 per cent of men, as opposed to 20 per cent of women, are unwilling to learn about information technology? What does the Taoiseach believe is the reason for this major gender difference?
I worked with the information society group and I would not like to discount the information that came out of those sessions. If a survey across the secretarial and administrative grades were carried out, it would be obvious that a far higher percentage of women have been involved in IT from the days of the ribbon typewriters to word processors and on to computers. That is the simple answer. Surveys carried out across the crafts industries indicate that people are not using technology of any kind. That is the reason for the imbalance in the figures. Surveys carried out of the banking, insurance, architectural and other sectors where technology is used indicate that the proportion of men who do not experience any difficulty with technology is as high as the figure for women. It is only when one takes the overall workforce that there is an imbalance in the figures.
It only arises in the Law Library.
Women are more adaptable.
That is an answer to the question I asked. The Taoiseach should listen to his Deputy Leader.
If one examines the survey figures it is obvious what men in the construction industry think of technology. The figure for the banking industry was more than 90 per cent with only 10 per cent in the construction industry. The answer to the Deputy's question is obvious.