The Minister for Education and Science, Mary Hanafin, has promised to deliver "within a month" an expert report on how best to spend €250 million for school computers promised last year in the 2007-2013 development plan.
Her undertaking came at a conference in Berlin on IT in schools and e-government organised by US software company Microsoft.
At the conference yesterday, the company's chairman Bill Gates announced plans to provide $235 million (€161 million) to extend for another five years its support for IT in education.
Ms Hanafin defended herself yesterday against complaints by the Irish National Teachers' Organisation (INTO) that she had not yet spent "a red cent" of funds earmarked for IT last year.
"I set up a strategy group at the beginning of the summer last year to examine the best way to target this specific bunch of money," she said.
A department spokesman said yesterday it was "to be expected" that funds would begin to flow this year to upgrade hardware and software, and to finance technical support as well as teacher training.
"There is a digital divide for children from socially disadvantaged backgrounds so it is very necessary to target their schools with increased resources so that they can at least get access to computers at school," said Ms Hanafin.
INTO general secretary John Carr responded that delays were "breeding anger, resentment and cynicism" among teachers.
"We were let down badly after buying into the last plan, IT 2000, which was left to fade away because of lack of Government support," he said.
"The single biggest contributor to the digital divide has been the lack of investment by the Department of Education and Science in IT," He said the challenge for the Minister was to restore confidence among teachers.
He said there also a digital divide between North and South. "In the North, they've spent £278 million in the last five years with plans to spend more. In that period we've spent petty cash."
Mr Gates said that he hoped to triple the impact of its "Partners in Learning" programme which he said had already involved 90 million students and teachers in 101 countries.
"Partners in Learning is one of the ways Microsoft works with governments and schools around the world to help teachers use technology in the classroom to make learning exciting and relevant for the 21st century," he said.