Ruairi Quinn (Dublin South East, Labour) | Oireachtas source

The process of decision-making - some day, no doubt, the Deputy will be in this process of responsibility - is to examine a proposal and try to assess what its likely impact would be. Part of our difficulty in the further education and current VEC side is that the Department has incomplete information as to the precise detail on the ground. It is a legacy of the past and is one of the reasons why we are moving towards the education and training boards. In order to find out what would be the impact of equalising the PTR for post-primary schools and PLCs, we would have had to ask every one of the 33 VECs. They in turn would have had to get results and feedback from their own colleges. We simply would not have had the time to do that and we are not sure that we would necessarily have got the accurate information. As we know, only about three or four areas are significantly impacted by this, including Cork City, Dublin County and Dublin City, which are up around 20 or 30. After that, when one looks at the list it is down to two or three in any one county VEC.

When the VECs are merged into the ETBs there will be the possibility for those people to be accommodated elsewhere. Let us be clear, however, that it is a saving and we will be reducing the number of full-time or whole-time equivalent jobs.

As regards the exact number of people who can be redeployed back into the system in other vacancies, I will have to wait until the CEOs tell us what that is. We do not have the information in the Department of Education and Skills to undertake that exercise. I am not so sure that we should have.

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