Dáil Éireann Debate, Wednesday - 27 May 2020
131. Deputy Thomas Byrne asked the Minister for Education and Skills the status of the procurement of information technology equipment through his Department following an announcement of top-up funding on 22 April 2020; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [7180/20]
View answer244. Deputy Thomas Byrne asked the Minister for Education and Skills the status of the provision of funds for information communications technology equipment to schools including the procurement of equipment via his Department. [7878/20]
View answerI propose to take Questions Nos. 131 and 244 together.
As part of the implementation of the Digital Strategy for Schools 2015-2020 - Enhancing Teaching, Learning and Assessment, funding of €210m for ICT Infrastructure will be distributed by my Department to primary and second level schools over the five years of the Strategy. €110m has issued over the last three years and a further €50m has recently been issued which includes the €10m referred to by the deputy.
This additional €10m ICT top-up funding which has also issued, is part of the broader Digital Strategy investment. Schools have been very innovative in meeting the challenges posed by school closures and I made this funding available at this time to assist schools to support students at risk of educational disadvantage due to COVID-19 school closures. Schools have been asked to use this funding to support students where, due to lack of access to digital devices, are disadvantaged in their engagement with the school's remote teaching and learning where this is provided by digital means.
Schools know their students and are best placed to identify how to best support their student to engage with learning during the current public health crises. The ICT Grant funding facilitates schools to put in place the supports needed to meet the needs of individual students to actively engage with remote learning. Decisions as to what equipment is to be acquired and procurement of same is the responsibility of schools.
Students, pupils and teachers can engage with remote learning using various digital devices including Desktop PCs, Laptops, Tablets and Chromebooks. Where schools have determined that laptops are required and in order to ameliorate current laptop supply chain challenges for laptops, my Department has advised schools of two mechanisms to aggregate purchase orders for laptops from schools under centralised bulk provisioning processes. The generation of a bulk order will enable prioritisation of laptops orders with manufacturers, and so expedite delivery over and above timelines that are generally available at present. These mechanisms are established under two Single Provider Frameworks, for the provision laptops for schools, based on OGP Frameworks which meet technical and procurement requirements for schools. Information regarding OGP Frameworks for the provision of other relevant equipment for schools has also been provided via the circulars governing the ICT Grant scheme.
Full details regarding the funding are set out in Circulars 0031/2020 (€40m funding) and 0032/2020 (€10m funding) which are available on the Department’s website at
https://www.education.ie/en/Circulars-and-Forms/Circulars-and-Forms/.
