Ruairi Quinn (Dublin South East, Labour) | Oireachtas source

I am very open to the principle behind the amendment. I have no difficulty with it but how to get something that will practically work. I want to talk about a person who is a member of a local authority who subsequently becomes a member of the new ETB but which is currently a VEC. Under the proposed legislation if a member of a local authority subsequently loses his or her seat for whatever reason - since we are aligning the elections with local elections this will not necessarily happen - or if he or she ceases to be a member of a local authority for legal reasons with which one would be familiar, he or she will automatically lose a seat. In addition in this context, we must provide for every possibility in legislation and not just for probable ones. If the same principle is applied to parents then there must be an institutional linkage between their membership of the ETB through being the parent of a child in the education system or through being a member of the local authority at that time.

I with to turn to the role of the National Parents Council. We know what is going to happen and I offer the following for consideration but we can return to it on Report Stage if Senators want to give it consideration. We know that the new elections in June 2014 will bring the new composition into place and we shall simply bring the three or two existing VECs together as a transitional process. The National Parents Council could initiate an invitation or expressions of interest. For example, in the Mayo-Sligo-Leitrim configuration that is simply the way. Senator Mooney should feel comfortable that Leitrim is recognised and I know how Leitrim feels neglected by the rest of the world. One could invite expressions of interest from people in those three counties. They could be asked if they want to be considered for election or nomination to the board. We could have some way of doing that so it is not going to be a surprise. In my view, logistically and practically, one could not start to engage in that exercise after local elections and there should be some preparations made for it. I am open to considerations on Report Stage because we have done something similar regarding representations in the five areas where business and learners will be represented. A mechanism exists and if we can align it in some way with that I will be open to giving it consideration on Report Stage.