Kathryn Reilly (Sinn Fein)

A few months ago I raised the issue of VEC amalgamations and where headquarters were located. I raised it in the Chamber, both with the Leader and as an Adjournment matter. I asked for a clear and open debate on how the decision was made; I got answers in the form of criteria. In a recent freedom of information request response from the Department of Education and Skills, however, I found that in a number of cases, the Minister for Education and Skills, Deputy Quinn, went against departmental advice, especially in regard to value of money. He used his personal preference to allocate the headquarters of a number of VECs.

Today we will talk about economic arguments and how we spend our money. Will the Leader invite the Minister for Education and Skills or, at some stage perhaps the Minister for Public Expenditure and Reform, Deputy Howlin, to discuss decisions that were made on VEC headquarters, why the criteria we were told were being used were not used and how the Minister came to exercise his personal preference in this decision?