Lisa McDonald (Fianna Fail)

Absolutely. Senator Healy Eames said that one size does not fit all when it comes to vocational education. She argued that all the various VECs provide different services. I do not think that is fair. All children should be treated the same regardless of whether they come from Wexford, Cavan, Dublin or Galway. I accept there is a need to differentiate between inner-city communities with different needs. We need to fight harder for them. I do not know the answer but we need to start by conducting a survey of enrolment and seeing what the children need. The work of the VECs has helped many people to get jobs. Many people with trades have done wonderful work in this country. We should focus on the next moves that are needed to help people to enjoy the benefits of having jobs rather than ending up on the trash heap, which has happened to many people.

If this is all about making savings, I suggest a simple way of doing that would be to provide for a centralised grant system. Responsibility for grants could be taken from the VECs. Westmeath VEC charges €88 to issue a grant. The highest grant price - in excess of €450 - is charged by County Tipperary North Riding VEC. There is huge divergence. There are similar differences in the times taken by VECs to issue grants. This could all be done pretty easily on-line. I do not see why we cannot take this function from the VECs and leave it at that. That would be a much more reasonable way of making changes. We need to get into the VECs to see exactly what changes need to be made. The bottom line is that the customer is the individual student or child. I have to say as a mother that there are many VEC schools to which I would not send my child. I do not say that in an elitist way. I refer to the manner in which services are being delivered. Many VECs are being run in an inefficient and poor manner. I have referred to the example of county Wexford VEC. I appreciate that not all VECs are like Wexford. That in itself is intrinsically unfair.