Michael Healy-Rae (Kerry South, Independent) | Oireachtas source

I am getting a good history lesson.

The aim of this Bill is to give effect to the Government's decision to provide for the establishment of newly configurated bodies, the education and training boards, to replace the vocational education committees, VECs. I wish to remember the VECs in a special way. I have a vested interest in this because from my early days in politics I worked closely with members of the VECs. My father was a member of a VEC for many years. Given how we are proceeding, I wish to acknowledge those people. The Minister over his long career in politics and other Deputies, like myself, will have known people who were members of VECs. Indeed, some of the Deputies might have been members of VECs. Great work was done by the people in VECs, and that should be acknowledged on the floor of this House. The people who are still alive should be thanked and the families of those who have passed on should know from the record of the House that I, and I know I speak for everybody else, respected them for the work they did. They were very committed to the job and were proud of the role they fulfilled in the education process.

I will speak a little about how things are changing so fast. We are not simply doing away with VECs but a myriad of things is coming together to take their place. While I am happy with that, the opposite decision to this is the Government's recent announcement about the abolition of town councils. That is a retrograde step and I will not support it. Sometimes the Government Ministers might get things right, but at other times they get them wrong.

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