James Bannon (Longford-Westmeath, Fine Gael)
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202. To ask the Minister for Education and Skills if he will provide a breakdown by year since 2011 of the financial savings and the value for money in the decision to locate the vocational education committee headquarters in Mullingar rather than in Longford; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [26902/14]

James Bannon (Longford-Westmeath, Fine Gael)
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204. To ask the Minister for Education and Skills if he will provide a breakdown by year since 2011 of the financial savings and the value for money in the decision to locate the VEC headquarters in Mullingar, County Westmeath rather than in County Longford; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [26924/14]

Ruairi Quinn (Dublin South East, Labour)
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I propose to take Questions Nos. 202 and 204 together.

In June 2011, the Government decided to reduce the overall number of vocational education committees (VECs) from 33 to 16, to merge particular VECs, including the VECs covering counties of Longford and Westmeath, and to approve in principle the preparation of a new Bill to replace the existing VEC legislation. The VECs were dissolved on 1 July last and were replaced with Education and Training Boards (ETBs).

The new ETBs will strengthen locally managed education and enhance the scale of local education and training. This represents a major component of the public service transformation agenda. The new configuration has facilitated exciting new provisions including the establishment of SOLAS, the dissolution of FÁS and has paved the way for the transfer of training functions to the newly formed Education and Training Boards. On 1st January of this year, 7 training centres transferred to 4 ETBs and in July of this year a further 12 training centres will transfer to 7 ETBs, including Longford and Westmeath ETB. In October 2011, I decided on the headquarter locations for the new ETBs. In relation to the Longford and Westmeath Education and Training Board, I decided that the headquarters would be in Mullingar.

In arriving at this decision, I considered a range of factors including the need to ensure that the location of an ETB 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 terms of these criteria, I was aware that redeployment of staff from Longford to Mullingar is possible under the Croke Park agreement. The offices in Longford have remained open and staff formerly employed in County Longford VEC headquarters have not yet been redeployed to Mullingar. I expect that the offices in Longford will remain open for some time and that the approach to redeployment will be measured and considered. I am satisfied that, properly managed, the move will positively impact on education services offered by the new ETB.

Since the offices in Longford have remained open and staff have not been redeployed to Mullingar following the establishment of the ETB in July last year, no savings have accrued from the decision to locate the VEC headquarters in Mullingar, County Westmeath.