The increasing emphasis on computers and information technology could result in an even greater divide between the rich and poor, Combat Poverty has warned.
The agency, which advises the Government on poverty issues, said if steps were not taken to discriminate positively in favour of the poor, this technology would create a new under-skilled underclass.
The price of computers and information technology (IT) products may have reduced, but the technology is still beyond the means of many families. This means that children from wealthier backgrounds have a head start when it comes to using technology at school.
As most professional jobs now require some form of IT skills, it also makes it more difficult for people lacking these skills to secure whitecollar jobs.
However, Combat Poverty said the Internet could be a positive force if it succeeded in providing better skills and access to information to the disadvantaged.
"Ensuring that excluded groups get access to IT will require more than physical access in libraries and Government departments," a spokeswoman for Combat Poverty said. "Training centres or resourced and staffed electronic halls in community centres will be necessary." Combat Poverty expressed concern at the fact that less than one-third of libraries had Internet and e-mail access and urged that it be improved and libraries be made more user-friendly for everyone.
It urged schools to look at more imaginative ways of bringing information technology to children, such as training parents in disadvantaged areas in IT.
"This could involve parents of children living in disadvantaged areas coming into the school and being given training in IT," the Combat Poverty spokeswoman said.
Concerns about creating a new underclass are not confined to this State. The G8 summit of leaders from leading industrial nations has proposed the setting up of a digital opportunities task force. This would investigate ways of bridging the international information and knowledge divide between rich and poor countries.
