Brian Stanley (Laois, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

I want to raise the issue of SI 394 of 2017 regarding Education Support Centres (Appointment and Secondment of Directors) Regulations 2017. It has to do with education support centres and education centres throughout the State. Basically, the change means that directors cannot serve more than five consecutive years and they cannot be rotated. As the Taoiseach will be aware, one may be on the board of a limited company for five years after which a proportion of the directors must stand down and be reappointed. SI 394 of 2017, which was signed by the Minister for Education and Skills on 1 September 2017, prevents that from happening. It will be deemed to have passed after 21 sitting days unless it is brought to the attention of the House for debate. I have been contacted by persons working in the education sector who are concerned about this and I raise this as a result. The point they make is that after five years on the board, one is losing that corporate knowledge. They set out a coherent case for that. I do not want to take up the time of the House with that. In a debate, maybe we can do that. I ask that we table this statutory instrument for debate in the House as soon as possible. By the way, today is day 19. We have 21 sitting days to debate this. I ask that in the interests of good governance in the education centres around the country, we press the pause button on this statutory instrument, we have a concise debate here in the Dáil - I do not wish to hold up or stop progress - and we try and improve this. This statutory instrument, SI 394 of 2017, is seriously flawed-----

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