Paschal Mooney (Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I would be grateful for the Minister's own knowledge of the intricacies of the legislation as to how I might address that challenge. I enjoy my time in the VEC and see it as an important role. I would be reluctant to give it up but that is for another day. I am just attempting to square the circle and do not want to over egg the pudding. The Minister has said he would consider suggestions and proposals on Report Stage, so does he see a possibility of addressing that issue? I appreciate it is a difficult one but he has addressed it in a previous section in terms of local authority representation. Without singling out Sligo, Leitrim and Mayo, he has said that where there is a configuration of three there will be a minimum of three local authority representatives.

I must put on the record that this is an extraordinarily big advance on what the original legislation was proposing, which would have ended up - on the basis of the math, as the Americans put it - with Leitrim having only one local authority representative. I am grateful to the Minister who saw the merit of that argument in terms of equity and fairness. Everybody accepts that and the same applies where there are two. All of that is contained in the relevant section. Will the Minister consider this matter because the way it will work, as currently outlined in this legislation, is not an ideal scenario.

During my time on the national council there were a number of counties that did not have any parents' representatives on their VECs. For some unknown, bizarre reason some counties did not nominate representatives and no elections were held. I would be concerned that, if the nomination process is left with the national council, the Minister may not necessarily get the result he is seeking in terms of the people appointed. If some counties showed a lack of interest, the person appointed may fulfil the criteria but may not otherwise be suitable.

I know the Minister is a strong democrat, so I am inclined towards the argument that Senator Power has made about local ballots. One can see the difficulty there would be, particularly in Sligo, Leitrim and Mayo, in coming up with a formula that would give fairness and equity, as well as providing local representation in the various counties. The only solution I can see is to adopt a position similar to that which the Minister adopted with the local authority representation, that is, to introduce an amendment on Report Stage that would address a minimum level of representation where there are two or three counties.