Address by Mr. Noel Treacy T.D., Minister for Science, Technology and Commerce at the Prize giving Ceremony for the 5th Spin a Web Competition in Regent House, Trinity College, Dublin on Tuesday 16th May, 2,000 at 3.15pm

Thank you for inviting me here today, to participate in the Prize giving ceremony for the 5th year of the Spin a Web competition. As Minister for Science and Technology, I love meeting enthusiastic young people who always know the latest developments in the Information and Communications Technology industry. Developments are so fast that I find it hard to keep up to date.

The World Wide Web and Internet enhance classroom opportunities by making available to students and teachers resources from all over the world, including original source materials. As you probably know, the Internet can bring information, data, pictures and even software into the classroom almost instantaneously. Access to these resources stimulates group projects such as this one, collaboration, sharing of curriculum materials and levels of idea sharing not found in schools that do not use the Internet.

Internet access also makes possible contact with people from all over the world, bringing into the classroom experts in every subject area. In using the Internet, concepts of race, gender, age, ability and disability have little significance and is therefore a valuable tool for those seeking to address the learning needs of all students. I am therefore very pleased to note that one of the judging criteria is that the web site has to be designed with the visually impaired in mind. In addition, I am pleased to see schools representing both the Republic and Northern Ireland.

I would like to return to one of the points I have just made, namely: the importance of team work. I am sure that all the finalists here to day realise that they would not be here unless they were part of a team. Each of us as individuals has certain skills. On their own, no individual would have had all the answers, ideas, skills to develop your Website. But when the skills are pooled, the expertise of the group is greater than the sum of the parts.

I am sure many of you will have heard the Government’s plans to make Ireland the eBusiness capital of Europe. We are spending vast amounts of money on improving our connectivity to the rest of the world. We are developing a Digital park on the outskirts of Dublin and legislation is currently going through the Dáil to regulate business on the web. However the crucial factor in making all of this work to Ireland’s benefit is the fact that we will need a highly skilled workforce. In response to the Expert Group on Future Skills Needs, our Government has allocated a total of IR£411 million to various educational initiatives which are designed to develop appropriate skills, to promote innovation, and to provide an additional 5,400 new third level college places in high technology courses over the next 4 years.

I would like to thank all of those people who helped make this day a success. By naming the following I hope that I am not forgetting any key people. If so please accept my apologies now. This competition would not occur were it not for the foresight of the Computer Science Department here in TCD. This Department has a reputation for initiative and under the leadership of Professor John Byrne has become one of the centres of educational excellence in our country. They would not have been able to run this competition without the assistance of Eircom’s Information Age Schools Project and the National Centre for Technology Education. On your behalf, I salute them for helping make this competition happen. I am also impressed with the quality of the judging panel. It seems to me that a good balance between Industry (Microsoft, Eircom), Education (Iowa State University, MIT Media Lab Europe, National Centre for Technology Education) and the Arts/Media (National Gallery, Irish Times and RTE) has been achieved. In my opinion, due to the high standard of the entries, they have a difficult task in selecting the winner. I am glad I was not asked to undertake this onerous task.

I would also like to pay tribute to the teachers and parents who encouraged their students in this Website design competition. Finally, I would like to say a big thank you to the all of the students who have participated here today. I am sure that all of you have learnt something valuable from it. You have heard enough for me for now. It’s time to announce the winners and I will now return you to our compere, Mr. Ray D’arcy.