Seanad debates

Tuesday, 26 March 2013

Education and Training Boards Bill 2012: Committee Stage

 

4:10 pm

Photo of Averil PowerAveril Power (Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I move amendment No. 2:


In page 28, subsection (1)(c), line 18, after "is" to insert ", at the time of appointment,".
Both amendment No. 2 and the corresponding amendment which follows on from it, amendment No. 8, relate to the current wording which provides that a parent, once his or her eldest child reaches the age of 18 and is no longer in an education facility, should no longer be a member of the local education and training board. I tabled the issue for debate because parents' representatives have raised with me the concern that while everybody else on the board will be there for the full five-year term, one could have parents on the board chopping and changing, and this could put them at a disadvantage vis-à-vis other members of the board. I can see the logic behind the amendment in that, if a parent came on the board when his or child was in secondary school and the child was not involved for the following four years, the parent would not be an appropriate representative for those four years. I want to raise, however, that concern that has been brought to me about consistency of representation. That is the substance of amendments Nos. 2 and 8.

Amendment No. 5 is about ensuring parents' representatives are "chosen through a ballot of local parents". It is important to have the national parents' bodies involved in the election process. They have an important role to play in terms of support for parents and training. Although the Bill is mainly about the post-primary sector, both the Minister and I attended the annual general meeting of the National Parents Council Primary last year. It is doing fantastic work, supported by the Department, in providing training for parents' representatives on boards of management. More of that needs to be done at second level as well. That is a good idea. Ultimately, the parents' representatives on the ETBs should be chosen by local parents and every parent with a child in any of the educational facilities covered in his or her area should have an opportunity to vote for his or her representative. That is important in terms of ownership of the process by local parents. That is the spirit of this amendment.

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