On 9 April, with the Ministers for Finance, Education, Transport, Energy and Communications, Enterprise and Employment, and the Minister of State with responsibility for Commerce, Science and Technology, I launched the Government's Millennium Initiative on the Information Society. A copy of the press statement at the launch has been placed in the Dáil Library.

The Government acted quickly to establish this initiative to ensure that Ireland takes full advantage of the considerable economic, social and educational benefits of the "Information Society"— the name given to the social and work environment of the future. The Government's action will form part of Ireland's millennium celebrations and will stimulate large-scale investment and improvements in technology throughout the country.

As recommended by the Report of Ireland's Information Society Steering Committee, the Government has decided to establish an Information Society Commission. The commission will be chaired by Ms Vivienne Jupp and will report directly to me as Taoiseach. It will drive initiatives across all sectors of the economy to prepare for the information society.

As part of the initiative, the Minister for Education announced a comprehensive set of measures to provide our young people with the skills and aptitudes to prosper in the era of the information society. These will include a schools' information technology 2000 project, a scoilnet initiative and a school integration initiative.

Altogether, 14,000 teachers will be trained in the use of information and communications technologies and at least one multimedia-ready computer connected to the Internet will be provided in every school as the initial step in a phased development programme.

The Government has also identified a number of proposals to stimulate further developments in the business sector. The Minister for Enterprise and Employment has asked Forfás to develop proposals with industry for the establishment of a Digital Park. The Information Society Commission has been asked to select 22 areas throughout the country for guaranteed broad-band service access. The Government has also asked it to recommend changes in legislation to remove any limitations on the use of information and communications technologies.

Taken as a whole, this initiative will help ensure Irish people in every area of life from business to the home will have access to and benefit from the many different opportunities presented by this new information-based economic and social environment.

Will the Taoiseach outline the terms of reference and remit of the commission and when its membership will be announced?

Membership of the commission will be announced this week. Its remit is to promote awareness of the requirement of change on everybody and every organisation in the State to ensure that we, as a society, fully use the information society to achieve our economic and social objectives and to ensure that the onset of the information society does not create divisions between those who have and those who do not have the necessary resources to use modern technology.

I agree with the Taoiseach's statement that information technology has spread throughout society and not only to those who can afford to use it. Apart from educational measures, will the Taoiseach indicate what other ways we can be involved in this initiative? The Department of Education and Forfás are relevant organisations to be involved in it, but will organisations such as those which run FÁS, community workshop and combat poverty programmes and deal with people on the margins be involved in it? The people who run those organisations are being told there are many jobs in technology and on the information highways, but the people with whom they deal, do not get many opportunities to take them up. Will the Taoiseach ask the commission to take account of those people in particular, as 20,000 young people are dropping out of education? This is a good idea but I would not like to see us make the educated more educated while doing very little for those on the margins of society.

I will specifically ask the commission to recommend the introduction of further incentives to encourage those who might not otherwise do so to use information technology in their daily lives. One of the crucial social questions that will face us in the first ten years of the next century will be whether the development in information technology will create two societies in Ireland or whether we will still have one. There is a risk that those who can afford to buy computers or go to schools where computers are readily available will have a further advantage on top of the already considerable advantages they have over those who do not have a computer in their homes. Therefore, we are taking an initiative to ensure a multimedia computer linked to the internet will be provided within easy access of everybody in Ireland. We will use a network of libraries and Government offices to ensure everybody has the physical means of getting to a facility where information technology is available to them and they can have access to the internet.

Clearly, training is of crucial importance. FÁS already provides considerable resources for training in information technology but it is not of use to people unless they have access to computers upon completion of training courses. That is why access to computers for those outside the education system as well as, most importantly, those within the system are central elements in this initiative. The information society report indicated that up to 48,000 additional jobs could be created by the application of the most advanced modern information technology. That is why, for example, we are providing for a digital park where multimedia technology for the making of film, film music and so forth can be developed. We will also provide broad band cables in at least 22 locations so that industry and business that wish to use multimedia communications, including video conferencing, have facilities available to them to develop. Additional employment will be created through this initiative.