Colm Burke (Fine Gael)

I raise an issue which has received a fair bit of coverage over the past few days, which relates to an audit report from Cork County VEC. It has been shown that teachers have been paid for 1,070 hours that were not worked and over €60,000 has been paid. A person was hired to drive children to a Youthreach project despite having been convicted of rape in the UK, as there was no background check undertaken before he was employed. We are in the middle of reforming and amalgamating the VECs and we have not had a debate in this House on the future role and structure of VECs. Will the Leader arrange for the Minister for Education and Skills to come to the House to discuss the future role of VECs and how we can further improve their work?

In fairness to the VECs in Cork county and city, they have done and continue to do excellent work, although the audit report highlights deficiencies in the structure of governance. We should consider the matter and it would be appropriate to have a debate in the House.