Billy Timmins (Wicklow, Fine Gael)
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Question 81: To ask the Minister for Education and Skills his views on correspondence (details supplied) regarding the amalgamation of County Wicklow and County Kildare Vocational Education Committees; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [32256/11]

Billy Timmins (Wicklow, Fine Gael)
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Question 82: To ask the Minister for Education and Skills his views on correspondence (details supplied) regarding the amalgamation of County Wicklow and County Kildare vocational education committees; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [32257/11]

Ruairi Quinn (Dublin South East, Labour)
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I propose to take Questions Nos. 81 and 82 together. In arriving at my decision in relation to the location of headquarters of the merged VECs, I considered a range of factors including the need to ensure that the location of a VEC headquarters will, to the greatest extent possible, facilitate staff redeployment under a redeployment scheme within the context of the Croke Park Agreement and the need to operate at lowest cost having regard to the accommodation available in existing locations. In relation to the specific merger of Co. Kildare VEC and Co. Wicklow VEC as you know I have decided that the headquarters of the Education and Training Board will be in Naas. In determining Naas as a headquarter location I was satisfied that geographically Naas is the more favourable location for the headquarters. The current office in Wicklow will be maintained as a sub office as the distance between it and Naas does not allow for redeployment of staff as provided for under the Croke Park agreement. It will be a matter for the CEO of the new Education and Training Board to work through how particular administrative functions are arranged across both locations having regard to the skills and experience of the staff concerned. It will be a matter for the CEO of the new Education and Training Board to work through and judge what the best approach is to ensure the optimum approach to service delivery. The establishment of SOLAS is also likely to have a bearing on the precise arrangements to be made. I want to make clear that my Department will not be forcing any one size fits all approach to staff deployment and office accommodation by the new Education and Training Boards. We will be receptive to any reasonable and sensible arrangements that are the best fit for the needs of the areas served by the new board. The Special Group on Public Service Numbers and Expenditure Programmes suggested that overall savings of €3million could be realised .The reconfiguration to 16 can, over time, yield such savings in the recurrent cost of the headquarter functions of VECs which, at present, is of the order of €40 million in total. Staff employed in the VEC headquarters are public servants and under the terms of the Croke Park agreement, such staff employed in a permanent capacity cannot be made compulsorily redundant. However, surplus staff may be redeployed. In common with all areas of the public service, VECs are subject to an Employment Control Framework (ECF). This places an upper limit on the number of staff which a public service organisation can have. Both VECs have each been set ECF targets to be achieved by the end of 2011. Redeployment arrangements to bring about the staffing reductions required to meet ECF limits will be agreed in accordance with the principles of the Croke Park agreement and will involve the unions representative of the grades concerned. My officials are currently involved in discussions with SIPTU and IMPACT, the trade unions representing staff in the VEC sector, regarding the proposed VEC mergers. An agreement has recently been concluded with SIPTU, on a redeployment scheme for CEOs in the context of the Croke Park agreement.