Michelle Mulherin (Mayo, Fine Gael)

Following the Minister's announcement last week of the merger of the vocational education committees of Mayo, Sligo and Leitrim, I ask him to consider locating the newly created organisation's headquarters in the town of Ballina in Mayo. The announcement of the restructuring of the country's VECs has been expected for some time. The educational needs of schoolchildren and adult learners in all three counties will be best served by establishing a completely new headquarters. I call on the Minister to ensure that it is located in Ballina where the VEC already has a strong base.

The new VEC will serve a huge geographical area. Ballina is the natural choice. It is the most central large town because it is as accessible to Ballinrobe to Ballinamore or Ballinode. The transition from three organisations to one will involve a considerable challenge for the new partners but the overriding concern must be the educational needs of students. The transition must be swift and smooth. The first challenge will be to quickly assemble a team that has the skills and experience to deal with such a large area with many diverse educational needs.

Mayo VEC, which is the biggest of the three VECs, has 750 teachers and administrative staff compared to Sligo which has 170 and Leitrim which has 110. Therefore, Mayo VEC has proven itself capable of operating a quality education and training service with great success to a vast county that caters for people of all ages, from 12 year olds entering secondary school for the first time to doctorate students through its close relationship with GMIT in Castlebar and the Institute's governing body to which it appoints a member.

It offers a wide variety of opportunities for educational attachments to people including post-leaving certificate courses, vocational training and opportunities, Youthreach and back to education initiatives, to name but a few. It also offers programmes aimed at helping the unemployed, marginalised and underprivileged and those whose early experience of education was not very good. Some 2,500 day pupils and 4,500 adults attend the eight Mayo VEC centres of learning throughout the county.

The logistics involved in dealing effectively with this merger are enormous and if it is poorly managed the excellent level of service to which we are accustomed will suffer. With its broad geographical and educational reach, in combination with the experience and dedication of its staff, its existing infrastructure and organisational systems which have already been tried and tested, Mayo VEC is well capable of taking the lead in the transition and with the new headquarters operating from Ballina will quickly overcome the challenges.

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