Terence Flanagan (Dublin North East, Independent)
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180. To ask the Minister for Education and Skills her plans to reduce the number of quangos in her Department; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [37509/14]

Jan O'Sullivan (Limerick City, Labour)
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For the Deputy's information, under the Public Service Reform Plan a number of bodies under the remit of this Department were identified for rationalisation or merger as follows:

The Irish Research Council for Science, Engineering and Technology and the Irish Research Council for Humanities and Social Sciences were merged in March 2012 to form the Irish Research Council (IRC), which is a sub-board of the Higher Education Authority (HEA).

Under the provisions of the Qualifications and Quality Assurance (Education and Training) Act 2012, the National Qualifications Authority of Ireland (NQAI), the Higher Education Training Awards Council (HETAC) and the Further Education Training Awards Council (FETAC) were amalgamated to form Quality and Qualifications Ireland (QQI).

Under the provisions of the Education and Training Boards Act 2013, 16 Education and Training Boards have replaced 33 Vocational Education Committees.

The Deputy may also wish to note the following:

In June 2011, the functions of the National Educational Welfare Board transferred to the Department of Children and Youth Affairs.

Since September 2011, the National Centre for Technology in Education (NCTE) is within the remit of Dublin West Education Centre alongside the Department's largest support service, the Professional Development Service for Teachers (PDST).

The City of Dublin VEC has replaced 66 grant awarding bodies as a single awarding authority for student grants.

The implementation of the Strategy for Higher Education to 2030 will also result in consolidation of Higher Education provision.