Ciarán Cannon (Galway East, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I thank all Members for their contributions to the debate on the Bill. They all have a wide knowledge of the excellent work being done by the VECs, with a passion and ambition to ensure that good work continues under new structures. In his opening remarks the Minister, Deputy Quinn, referred to that strong track record of the VECs in the development of our system and praised the philosophy in providing high-quality education. He also praised the sector's role in meeting the needs of the labour market, as mentioned by Senator Quinn and others, as well as the tradition of responsiveness and innovation in addressing emerging demands.

Together with the forthcoming SOLAS legislation, this Bill will position new education and training boards to harness the wonderful legacy, both from within the FÁS training entity and from the national VEC structure. It is a wonderful blend of energy, dynamism and social concern, as the sector and country adapts to the challenges of the 21st century. That significant potential was emphasised by Senator Power in her contribution, and I agree with the point. There is incredible potential in the sector and a large repository of knowledge, experience and wisdom built up over decades.

If we can somehow bolt those together, we can create something unique and powerful.

I have listened with interest to the comments from all sides of the House. I appreciate the broad support expressed by Members of the House for this important reforming legislation.

A number of Senators raised the issue of the relevance of courses, particularly regarding the emerging labour market. That was mentioned by Senator Quinn since I arrived in the House. The education and training boards are to have an enhanced and expanded role in training with the upcoming SOLAS reforms that will be introduced through the Further Education and Training Bill. In that regard, the functions of the boards have been set out in the Bill and explicitly refer to the role of education and training boards in planning, providing, co-ordinating and reviewing the position of education and training for the purpose of employment. That pragmatic approach to the current economic reality, and the economic realities that will emerge in the future, which affect so many unemployed people around the country, is supported by the requirement for the boards to have at least one member who must be from a specified body that represents employers or business. That aim is reinforced by the provision for boards to consult on an ongoing basis with a wide range of relevant people and bodies, including employers and business groups. As Senators will be aware, FÁS as it is currently constituted has an active and effective research unit that will be retained in the new structure for SOLAS. FÁS liaises closely, as does the vocational education sector, with Forfás and the expert study group on future skills needs to determine present skills needs and what skills may be required in the medium and long term. That research is taking place at national and regional level because the skills needs of Galway city may be substantially different from those of Cork city or Dublin city. We must carry on that research, and the ETBs will be encouraged to conduct their research at regional level to ensure they are responding effectively and in a meaningful manner to the needs of the emerging labour markets in all regions.

The issue of the membership of the boards was discussed at length today. On foot of the constructive issues raised by Members of the Dáil, the Minister has increased the overall number of ETB members from 18 to 21, the number of local authority members from 10 to 12 and the number of community representatives from four to five. That approach was informed by a number of principles: the need to ensure that smaller counties are adequately represented; the importance of ensuring a reasonable balance across all education and training boards; the need to ensure an appropriate balance between local authority members and community representatives; the overriding concern that the membership of the boards is small enough to ensure that they are effective and that they can be flexible and innovative in the way they develop further education and training opportunities in their respective areas.

Senators also raised the issue of representation for adult learners. This matter was discussed and considered in the other House. I have also had a number of discussions with adult learner representatives. We have included provisions in section 30 to give learner representative bodies a right to make nominations to the new boards and to require that each ETB has at least one learner representative on its board. Therefore, we have responded in a positive manner to the engagement we have had with learner representatives.

Senator Barrett raised his concern about representation for teachers on the new boards. The provision for two staff representatives is the same as that applicable to VECs at present. In most cases teachers are elected as the two staff representatives. I hope that representation by the teaching profession and teaching body will remain as effective in the new ETB structure as it has been in the past.

Senator Wilson also raised some important points regarding community national schools. A re-examination of the Bill took place having regard to the provision, management and patronage of community national schools. We believe that the Bill as drafted, supplemented where necessary with departmental circulars, can adequately provide for the establishment and maintenance of community national schools.

With regard to SOLAS, existing FÁS training centres, staff and premises will be transferred to the ETBs. That will mean that potential learners will access a form of one-stop shop for further education and training services which will respond in an integrated way to their needs.

Interaction with learners has been one of the most important opportunities that I have had as Minister of State in the Department responsible for training and skills and the transformation of the further education and training sector. I spent two exceptional mornings with learners, facilitated by AONTAS. I met people who had commenced learning and those who had recently exited the system. I did that because it was important to learn from their experience and to hear the human stories behind their engagement with the system. Without exception, one of the recurring themes that emerged was the fear that people had of first engaging with the system because many of them may have had literacy or numeracy issues, or may have left school to enter the burgeoning construction sector. At that time many of them would have left the education system at 15 or 16 years of age with little or no educational backup to serve them later in life. Re-entering the system was quite a traumatic event for many of those people. The structure of the ETBs, when they are established, must ensure that once learners begin to engage with the system and find themselves comfortable within it, they will continue to engage with it. We must create progression opportunities for them all the way up in as seamless and painless a way as possible. Once we have them in our system we must encourage them to remain within it and to build up and reach the pinnacle of their ambitions and talents.

Senator Bacik raised the issue of gender balance. As far as possible the Bill reflects a desire for gender balance on the new boards. As she mentioned, parent representatives should comprise one man and one women, and of the five community representatives there must be a minimum of two women and two men. The Minister of the day is conferred with the regulation-making power to establish women-only and men-only panels from which staff representatives would be elected. This maintains the position under the existing regulations.

The Senator raised the issue of local authority representatives on VECs. The current position is that the proportion of male and female local authority representatives on a VEC must mirror the proportion of the total number of male and female members of those county, city and town councils when added together. That has given rise to practical difficulties which, when they arise, can cast a legal doubt on the validity of boards that do not reflect the correct gender proportions. The Minister for the Environment, Community and Local Government, Deputy Hogan, is introducing serious reforms in the electoral process which obliges political parties to have a far fairer and more representative gender distribution. That measure will filter down to local authority representation. One would expect that most of the political parties will begin looking at recruiting female candidates for the next local elections with a view to having them stand in the general election, whenever that might occur. That measure will filter down, but it might not happen as quickly as the Senator would like it to happen. There is also the issue that if one seeks democratic representation on ETBs from local authority elected members then one must examine the reality of democratic representation in local authority entities across the country at present. That information would then feed through to their presence on the ETBs when they are created.

I will conclude by thanking speakers on all sides for their contributions and their generous support of the Bill. Without doubt, this is one of the most exciting developments in further education and training in the past 40 years. It gives us all a chance to put in place a system we can be proud of. We are a small island on the periphery of Europe, so we often tend to look to others to set an example. When it comes to education we always tend to cite best practice in other countries such as Finland - or Scandinavia in general - or, in the area of vocational training, Germany and Austria. Yes, we can draw from their experience and yes, there are some elements of their provision that would work exceptionally well here. With this reforming legislation there is no reason we cannot be the very best, and I genuinely think we can. If we can draw from that incredible experience over the past decades and from my interaction with the IVEA and FÁS, there will be a genuine passion and a commitment to make this work.

When SOLAS is established and people see the type of provision that will be available and the passion with which the people in the sector want to make this happen, we will be very proud of what we set out to do.