Gerry Adams (Louth, Sinn Fein)
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Question 148: To ask the Minister for Education and Skills if the institutions of the vocational education committee are exempt from freedom of information requests; if so, should a situation arise whereby the vocational education committee is requested to address an issue, and a satisfactory response is not received, without recourse to FOI the alternatives that are in place for those seeking recourse to questions remaining unanswered; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [35756/11]

Ruairi Quinn (Dublin South East, Labour)
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Vocational Education Committees (VECs) are not currently covered by the Freedom of Information Act. However, the Programme for Government provide that the Government will legislate to extend its remit to other public bodies. The Department of Public Expenditure and Reform is carrying out preparatory work to implement the above commitment, which includes consideration of the extension of the Freedom of Information Acts to the VECs. As VECs are statutory bodies, any issue arising, such as that referred to by the Deputy, are a matter for the relevant VEC to address.