Anthony Lawlor (Kildare North, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I recall that when the Minister appeared more than a year ago before the Joint Committee on Education and Social Protection to speak to us about reforms in this area, many members were positive about the changes proposed.

I did my H.Dip in the local VEC school in Naas, following which I spent a year teaching in the VEC school in Maynooth, which was an enjoyable experience from which I learned a great deal about the workings of the VEC. When my mother passed away, I was co-opted onto the VEC, from which I learned a great deal about the workings of the board. When I was asked in 1999 to again become a member of the board of the VEC, I declined because I believed at that time - perhaps I was a young headless chicken and am now an older headless chicken - that the board did not have any real role in the running of the VEC. For this reason, I welcome the dramatic changes that are proposed, not alone the change proposed by the Minister in this legislation, but the changes in local government proposed by the Minister for the Environment, Community and Local Government, Deputy Hogan, which link directly into this legislation.

I would like to speak about two issues, the first of which is the new boards. The legislation stipulates that populations will dictate from where the local authority board members will come. I am thinking in this regard of my own area of Kildare-Wicklow. The Minister might consider also taking into account the number of VEC education facilities in one county versus another county. While the population of each county might be the same, the number of schools in a particular county would be more relevant. I hope the Minister will take that point on board.

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