asked the Minister for Education, arising from the publication of the Green Paper, if she will give details of the costing considerations which were examined by her Department in deciding that regionalisation was the most economic way of proceeding to reform and rationalise second-level education.
Ceisteanna—Questions. Oral Answers. - Green Paper on Education.
26.
The costing considerations examined by my Department included the costs of the present administrative and executive functions which are centralised in my Department and the costs associated with the 38 existing VECs, each of which has its own administration at present.
It will be appreciated that it is not desired to increase the costs of administration and that any funds available should go towards the improvement of services for young people rather than be eaten up in administration costs. In these circumstances, and making due allowance for the fact that the administration of individual vocational schools would be devolved to a local board of management, it would be possible, given reasonably viable areas, to provide additional services without increasing administrative costs. The numbers of staff employed in my Department on the functions being devolved and the numbers of staff employed by the 38 VECs at present would be sufficient to enable the 13 local education councils to discharge the functions proposed for them.
I wish to take up the last sentence of the Minister's reply in which she speaks of 13 envisaged local education councils. I understood from various documents emanating from the Minister's office to anxious party activists of her party that 13 was not a set number but was up for consideration, for flexibility, possible enlargement, reviewing, discussing and so forth. These were reassuring words. The Minister has now given quite definitively the number of 13. Will that be the number, or will the number not be much more?
I wish to state quite clearly that the question from the Deputy related to the Green Paper and it was in that context that it was answered. In the Green Paper it was stated quite clearly that there are 13 local education councils. The Deputy is quite right that in separate statements I had indicated — quite clearly — as also in my statement launching the Green Paper — that one was open to discussion on and some variation of this number.