Ciarán Cannon (Galway East, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I move amendment No. 12:

In page 26, line 28, to delete "18 members" and substitute "21 members".

The composition of education and training boards was discussed in detail during the Committee Stage debate on the Bill. The Minister, Deputy Quinn, did not give any particular commitments in this regard at the time, other than to say he wanted to reflect further on the contributions that had been made by Deputies. The amendments before the House, which have been introduced on foot of that reflection, will increase the number of members of each education and training board from 18 to 21, the number of local authority members on each board from ten to 12 and the number of community representatives from four to five. When we reach other amendment groupings, we will discuss the minimum representation for each local authority that is to be set down and the sectoral interests that will have to be represented on education and training boards. Our approach in this regard is informed by a number of principles, including the need to ensure smaller counties are adequately represented, the importance of ensuring there is a reasonable balance across all education and training boards and the need to strike an appropriate balance between local authority members and community representatives. Our overriding concern is to provide that the membership of the new boards is small enough to ensure they are effective. I believe these amendments go some way towards meeting the demands of later amendments to be proposed by Deputies McConalogue and O'Brien.

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