Ivana Bacik (Independent) | Oireachtas source

I welcome the Minister of State, Deputy Cannon, to the House, and I also welcome the Bill, which is being welcomed by all parties. That is good to see. I also welcome the overall reforms that the Minister for Education and Skills, Deputy Quinn, and the Minister of State present have been involved in introducing in the education sector. We have had debates in the House on the transformation of the patronage model, which the Minister has rolled out and which is welcome to see, in line with increased demand from parents for more diversity in the provision of schools. We have also seen reforms to the junior certificate, which has also been debated in the House, and some of us are old enough to still call the exam the intermediate certificate. The junior certificate reforms are welcome, as are reforms to teacher training and in the university sector. There have been other initiatives, such as the campaign against homophobic bullying and accompanying strategy, which the Minister has recently introduced. A new broadband provision was rolled out this week in Warrenmount school, which is very near to where I live in the south inner city. All of this is very welcome and the sort of reforms in which the Minister has engaged are very positive and progressive.

Most of this Bill is entirely welcome but there is one aspect I would like to address. I ask the Minister of State, Deputy Cannon, to take this back to the Minister, Deputy Quinn, and I have already raised the matter directly with him. Section 30(1)(a) is concerned with the composition of education and training boards and provides for 21 members on each education and training board, of whom 12 will be elected by local authorities. I know one of the Minister's predecessors, Ms Niamh Bhreathnach, promoted the need to ensure gender balance on what were the VEC and other boards in the education sector, specifically for members elected by local authorities. I have indicated to the Minister that we should consider ensuring specifically that gender balance is provided for in respect of the members of the education and training boards under section 30 who are elected by local authorities, as per current VEC regulations, the Dublin Institute of Technology (Amendment) Act 1994 and the Regional Technical Colleges (Amendment) Act 1994. There are a number of models.

In section 30 there is a good deal of reference to the need to ensure gender balance in respect of the other panels from which members of the boards are to be chosen. For example, section 30(1)(c) refers to the parents' representation, and the Minister is to specify national associations of parents which will nominate two representatives, one of whom shall be a man and one of whom shall be a woman. That is specified in legislation.

I know this was considered when the Bill was going through the Dáil, although I am not sure what happened at that stage. There was very detailed material in the Vocational Education (Amendment) Act 2001, section 7 of which provided for regulations to provide that both sexes shall be represented on a VEC in such proportions as are specified in regulations etc. There was perhaps greater recognition of the need to ensure gender balance specifically in respect of the members to be elected from local authorities.

That is my one concern and otherwise it is an extremely welcome Bill. It very much fits within the package of reform measures being introduced by the Minister and which we all welcome. People generally recognise that this is a genuinely reforming Minister. It is important that we ensure the need for gender balance from local authorities is preserved in the Bill. I am mindful that tomorrow is International Women's Day and that currently we have appallingly low figures of female representation in politics generally. This Government is the first to introduce very welcome positive action measures so that political parties which do not put forward enough women candidates in the next general election will be penalised in their State funding. However, that provision does not apply to local elections, and it is not enough to simply argue that we will see more women elected to local authorities, which will filter to the representation on boards like the education and training boards. That is not enough, as only 16% of councillors are women. It is really important to ensure a gender balance in making these boards.