Fidelma Healy Eames (Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I thought so. I thank the Minister for that. They felt that this was necessary from the point of view of democratic local representation.

I would add that those members should have a competence in education. Those with an education background are not rare. Given that we are ten a penny, and by and large many go into local politics, we should maximise the expertise on the boards by, where possible, ensuring that they have some background in education. Parents qualify in that respect as well. It gives the board a greater confidence. Having chaired a board, I can see from where the voices come. The voices come from those who have confidence and on many occasions, confidence comes out of competence.

I support the point made by Senator Power that, where possible, there should be student and learner representation on a board. I would say there should be at least two because it is quite daunting for a young person to end up on an extremely adult, and perhaps at some points aged, board. That is a culture in and of itself. It is so that they are not wiped out by being over daunted there, while their input is critical to the service provided.

On section 42, the Minister might clarify whether he has addressed the following on the living locally clause. County Galway VEC felt strongly that all school boards of management should include a representative from the ETB in the context of reporting back to the board. The exclusion of ETB members or, more importantly, the non-inclusion of at least one ETB member would, the VEC and I believe, limit the capacity of the board to manage the school. We are merging Galway city VEC, Galway county VEC and Roscommon VEC, involving a considerable piece of territory. In that area, there will be six Gaeltacht schools and two gaelcoláistí. The person on the school board of management really should speak Irish. Does the Minister know what I mean? It is not a given.