Tag Archives: digital divide

A SIGNIFICANT allocation of funding to assist third level institutions to reopen and help end the digital divide will benefit students in Clare, Deputy Joe Carey has said.  Deputy Carey said the €168 million package will ensure third level institutions have the necessary tools to return to education in a safe manner and ensure all students can access remote learning. The Clare Fine Gael TD said: “Throughout the pandemic, further and higher education never closed. Even during the most restricted period of the pandemic, institutions and providers continued to provide education through emergency remote learning. “We need to support them now as students seek to return in September. This significant financial package for our third level institutions will assist with their safe re-opening.” Students will receive new supports, he added. “In addition, significant further supports are being put in place for students, including increasing student supports, access to mental health services and a new scheme aimed at helping students with …

CLARE County Council has moved to reassure the public that a new on-line system for advertising social housing won’t disadvantage those who are not computer literate. The issue was raised at the monthly meeting of the authority by Councillor PJ Ryan who said constituents had been contacting him to voice concerns over the new Choice Based Letting (CBL) system, which allows people to view newly-available properties and make a bid from them through an on-line platform. “There is a bit of nervousness and a genuine fear out there that if you are not computer literate, you will miss out,” the Independent member explained. “If, for example, someone doesn’t find out for a week or ten days that a property is available, it’s unfair that they might miss out. In other cases, people might not be literate and have to rely on family or friends to make their application. Those people could miss out in this system too.” Councillor Ryan’s motion …

HUGE tracts of Clare are on the wrong side of the so-called ‘digital divide’ according to local politicians and business people, with concerns this is hampering economic development and will continue to do so for years to come. Research published this week by switcher.ie shows that there is an average download speed in Clare of 17.4 Megabits per second (Mbps). This is the 12th quickest of the 26 counties and while this is dramatically quicker than last-placed Longford (just 7.25Mbps), it is also way behind first-placed Dublin (44.85Mbps) and also some distance behind Waterford (27.9Mbps) and Kildare (27.36Mbps). The research also shows that Shannon, home to companies such as IT giant Intel, has an average download speed of 51.64 Mbps, the eighth quickest city or town in Ireland. While the figure in Shannon is almost three times quicker than the average for the county, there is no doubt that many rural areas are experiencing much slower speeds. Fianna Fáil TD …