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

The Deputies will recall that during the formation of the legislation underpinning the ETB structure, we all concluded it was an excellent idea to confer on ETBs complete autonomy in distributing and allocating resources within their respective regions. Dublin and Dún Laoghaire ETB has sanction for 150 VTOS places to distribute as best it can across its region of responsibility.

Very early in its life, the new ETB carried out a review that found that while Tallaght had 120 places, Balbriggan, a rapidly growing area with almost equally high unemployment, had only 20. The ETB, taking account of the movement of the former FÁS training centre in Tallaght, decided to move those 20 places from Tallaght to Balbriggan, leaving Tallaght with 100 and Balbriggan with 40. This involved the closure of St. Dominic's VTOS centre, which had 40 places, and its remaining 20 places were transferred to Tallaght town centre. As I said earlier, the Department has no function or responsibility for the allocation of places within the ETBs, each of which is completely autonomous and independent. Dublin and Dún Laoghaire ETB made the decision and we must and should respect it.

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