Ciarán Cannon (Galway East, Fine Gael)

I welcome the opportunity to outline this week's decision by the Minister for Education and Skills on the location of the headquarters of the new education and training boards following the Government decision to revise the configuration of VECs. As Donegal, Kerry and Dublin city VECs are not being merged, there will be no change to the location of their headquarters at Letterkenny, Tralee and Ballsbridge. Six of the new entities will have sub-offices for the foreseeable future. The Minister has decided the amalgamated north and south Tipperary board will have its headquarters in Nenagh and a sub-office in Clonmel; the Cavan and Monaghan board will have its headquarters in Monaghan and a sub-office in Cavan; the Kildare and Wicklow board will have its headquarters in Naas and a sub-office in Wicklow; the Mayo, Sligo and Leitrim board will have its headquarters in Castlebar and sub-offices in Sligo and Carrick-on-Shannon; the Galway city and county and Roscommon board will have its headquarters in Athenry and a sub-office in Roscommon; and the Waterford city and county and Wexford board will have its headquarters in Wexford and sub-offices in Waterford and Dungarvan.

A single headquarters location has been designated for each of the remaining seven new entities. While staff will be expected to move to the new location as soon as is feasible, sub-offices will be maintained in the immediate short term to facilitate the mergers. The amalgamated Cork city and county board will have its head office within the greater city area of Cork; the Meath and Louth board will have its headquarters in Drogheda; the Dublin and Dún Laoghaire board will have its headquarters in Tallaght; the Laois and Offaly board will have its headquarters in Portlaoise; the Carlow and Kilkenny board will have its headquarters in Carlow; and the Longford and Westmeath board will have its headquarters in Mullingar. The newly merged Limerick city and county and Clare board which has been referred to by the Deputy will have its headquarters within the greater city area of Limerick. In arriving at these decisions the Minister considered a range of factors, including the need to ensure VEC headquarters would be in locations that, to the greatest extent possible, facilitated staff redeployment under a redeployment scheme within the context of the Croke Park agreement and the need to operate at lowest cost having regard to the accommodation available in existing locations.

It is important to note that the offices of the three specific VECs mentioned by the Deputy are within a 45 km radius of one another. Consequently, there is no barrier to redeploying staff under the Croke Park agreement and no requirement for sub-offices in these cases. I am sure the Deputy will appreciate that the main purpose of the VEC rationalisation is to bring about greater efficiencies. This goal can be realised, in part, by reducing the number of offices used by VECs. In the circumstances, the Minister is satisfied that the optimum headquarters location for the newly merged VEC is within the greater city area of Limerick. I expect staff in Ennis will move to the designated headquarters location as soon as is feasible. A sub-office in Ennis will be maintained in the short term to facilitate an orderly merger.

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