Michael McGrath (Cork South Central, Fianna Fail)
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Question 208: To ask the Minister for Education and Skills his reasoning, including the details of the criteria used, for the revised mergers of vocational educational committees as announced in June 2011; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [22311/11]

Michael McGrath (Cork South Central, Fianna Fail)
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Question 209: To ask the Minister for Education and Skills his reasons for proposing a merger of Cork city and Cork county vocational education committees even though on 12 October 2010 he confirmed that these VECs would remain separate; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [22312/11]

Ruairi Quinn (Dublin South East, Labour)
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I propose to take Questions Nos. 208 and 209 together.

In July 2009, the Special Group on Public Service Numbers and Expenditure Programmes recommended that the number of VECs could be reduced from 33 to 22 and aligned with the functional areas of the 22 Local Authorities, also recommended by the Group. In September 2009 the then Minister for Education and Science invited interested parties to make written submission in relation to a reduction in the number of VECs.

Arising from this process, the previous Government decided in October 2010 to reduce the overall number of VECs from 33 to 16 and agreed on the merger of particular counties.

At the core of the proposed restructuring is the need to address the current low scale and size of operations in particular VECs in order to position the sector for future development. In this regard, the previous Government decided on a reduction to 16 new entities.

On entering office, I invited the Irish Vocational Education Association (IVEA) to submit alternative rationalisation proposals following their expression of concerns regarding the configuration of the revised entities decided by the previous Government. The IVEA subsequently submitted a proposal that involved 20 new entities.

I am satisfied that having regard to cost and critical mass considerations, a reduction to 16 new entities is appropriate. Consequently, while the new configuration takes account of the IVEA submission to the greatest extent possible, it does not modify the reduction from 33 to 16 in the number of VECs decided by the previous Government.

In this new configuration, eleven of the new entities match the IVEA proposal. In addition, the IVEA proposals to merge City of Galway VEC with Co. Galway VEC, Co. Sligo VEC with Co. Leitrim VEC and City of Waterford VEC with Co. Waterford VEC have also been reflected, albeit with the inclusion an additional county in each case. Only three of the existing entities will continue, City of Dublin on the basis of overall scale; and Co. Donegal and Co. Kerry on the basis of their peripheral geographic location.

It was the previous Government that decided to maintain City of Cork and County Cork as separate entities. The recent Government decision to merge City of Cork and County Cork VECs aligns the position in Cork with that planned for Limerick, Waterford and Galway.