Mr. Declan Glynn:

We are advocating dedicated teacher representation on the boards because we believe the boards would have significantly less expertise at their disposal in the absence of teacher representatives on the boards. We seek clarity in respect of the groups from which the additional four persons under the remaining subsection of section 28 would be drawn. Specifically, we request that recognised trade unions and staff associations be included among the nominating groups. We welcome the provisions in respect of the filling of casual vacancies on the boards and the disqualification from ongoing membership of an education and training board of a person who ceases to be a member of the staff of that education and training board. What has transpired is that a difficulty has emerged in VECs where persons resign their employment but remain as members of boards. In our submission we query the waiver on the requirement that parents' representatives on education and training boards would be parents of children enrolled in one of the schools or centres under the aegis of a VEC. It is incongruous that a parent on the education and training board could be required to live in proximity to the ETB but the section would facilitate a parent from any other part of the country being a member of a local education and training board on the nomination of an association. That creates a difficulty.

The sole category from which gender representation on education and training boards will derive assuredly is the parent representative constituency group. We believe that the principle of gender balanced representation should be extended to each of the sub-categories from which representation is drawn.