A Waterford TD says schools should be providing inexpensive computer tablets to students.
The Dail's COVID Committee has been told that students are being disadvantaged by the lack of access to broadband in some areas.
Independent Deputy Matt Shanahan was under the impression that schools are providing laptops to a lot of students
"If there is a difficulty with accessing the Internet for learning why not put programmes onto those laptops so students can work on the exercises at night at home and bring that work in the following day? I presume we are talking about kids who are in the following week and have it assessed, rather than saying that because we do not have broadband that this leads to discrimination.
"Surely there is a way of getting some of these programmes put onto the laptops where kids can work away regardless of whether broadband is available."
However, TUI General Secretary Michael Gillespie says their research shows the vast majority of students are relying on their phones
"The only devices they had to access the Internet and whatever was being put up on the school website were their phones.
"The phones do not have the capacity to put up programmes, etc., so they were actually just using their phone to go onto the websites of the schools and trying then to translate that into the homework they were doing.
"It is not just about a lack of broadband; it is about a lack of devices in homes.
"Even if a household has broadband, they may not enough devices for all the school-going children to use at the same time.
Deputy Shanahan says there are alternative solutions:
"It is possible to purchase new small tablets for as little as €40 to €50 and surely schools, school management and the unions need to be looking at solutions here.
"It is impossible to believe that we are not going to have school closures over the course of the year and we need to be facilitating students."
