The Department of Foreign Affairs is to send 400 second-hand computers to help schoolchildren in sub-Sahara Africa.
The five-year-old PCs, which which would normally be dumped, will have specialised education software stored on to their hard drives to be used by impoverished pupils.
A small Irish NGO, Camara, will recycle the Department's computers and ship them to Africa in coming weeks.
Minister for Foreign Affairs Dermot Ahern said: "Support for education is an important element of the Government's overseas aid programme and technology literacy is increasingly important in this information age.
"These computers will assist African students to build their computer and information technology skills and to prepare themselves for development challenges facing their communities.
"This is a practical example of supporting education in computer skills in developing countries."
Camara sent hundreds of re-formatted computers to schools in sub-Saharan Africa in 2005 and 2006. Last year, Irish Aid approved funding of €225,000 over three years to support Camara's work.
PA