Gerard Craughwell (Independent) | Oireachtas source

The Minister is welcome. I congratulate him on the work he is doing in respect of further education. For 25 years of my life while working in further education, I wanted a Minister like him who would drive matters forward. Fair play to him; he is doing a great job so far.

In the context of amendment No. 76, the Bill reads "such other body or person as it considers appropriate". We tabled the amendment to include local authorities and councillors as well as those other bodies and persons considered appropriate.

I attended an Association of Irish Local Government, AILG, meeting last week and can assure the Minister that even Fine Gael councillors are quite exercised about this. They feel they are being written out of the legislation. In the case of higher education institutions, councillors have a major role to play in bringing to bear local issues and concerns. What we are seeking here is that the legislation would specify a role for local authorities and councillors, rather than it being vague, which is the current position. I fully appreciate that the Minister will probably argue that under the section as it stands, it is open to the institutions to bring local authority people in but I have spoken to members of local authorities and they feel more and more excluded. They see more and more centralisation and are concerned. They work hard within their communities and they deliver. The Minister knows them better than I do. I know that he spends a lot of time meeting people on the ground out there so he probably heard all this before he came into the House this evening. In that context, I implore him to take on board amendment No. 76 and to specify a role for local authorities and their members.