Jonathan O'Brien (Cork North Central, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

I move amendment No. 48:

In page 26, subsection (8)(a), line 36, after “training” to insert the following:“including mandatory representation from representatives of recognised voluntary secondary schools, the business sector, Údarás na Gaeltachta, a recognised teaching union, student unions and adult learners,”.

The purpose of the amendment is to ensure that education and training boards are as representative as possible. I accept that each board will have only four voluntary members. We sought to increase that to six but that amendment was ruled out of order.

One could argue that representatives need to be from the business community, adult learners and the Irish language sector. One could have a wide range of people who would bring their experience to a particular education and training board, but the four voluntary appointments on each ETB need not represent all the sectors requiring representation. One ETB might have a representative of adult learners and another might not. One could have a business representative and another might not. The Irish language representation is particularly important. If an ETB covers a Gaeltacht area at least one of the four appointments should be made by Údarás na Gaeltachta or Foras na Gaeilge to represent the Irish language sector.

The amendments proposes that we would define who the representatives should be and then leave it up to the ETB to appoint them.