Subsection (2) states:
(2) Whenever the Minister considers that this Act should apply to any other educational institution, the Minister may, by order, made with the consent of the Minister for Finance, and following consultation with the vocational education committee, amend the said First Schedule by inserting in column (1) thereof the name of the institution...
My amendment seeks to delete the phrase "Minister considers" and to substitute "vocational education committee recommends". This amendment is very timely. I am appalled at the 43 amendments circulated by the Minister this morning. Effectively they remove any role remaining to the vocational education committees in relation to regional colleges. These colleges were developed by the vocational education committees over a 20 year period and they are the great educational success of the State. The Minister in introducing these amendments seeks to change that and to remove altogether any role for the vocational education committees. The proposed amendments change the Bill completely and are at variance with what the Minister's predecessors presented on Second Stage and previously on Committee Stage. The whole thrust of the Bill has been changed since Second Stage and we are moving away from local democratic control. My amendment seeks to remove the thrust towards centralisation which is to be copperfastened by the ministerial amendments.
This is a retrograde step in terms of third level education. We saw a newspaper report on Monday relating to a letter which emanated from the Minister's Department preventing regional colleges from expanding in relation to the conferring of degrees. Twenty-two applications were dealt with and all but one were knocked. The Department want to operate on a guideline which will allow 10 per cent of students in regional colleges to pursue degree courses. This is an example of discrimination against the regions in favour of Dublin. The regional colleges provide about 10 per cent of their students with degree courses. Thirty per cent of the courses provided by the Dublin Institute of Technology are degree courses. If we include Maynooth, there are four universities servicing Dublin and a Dublin Institute of Technology which is providing 30 per cent degree courses to students. This is against the backdrop of a guideline of 10 per cent degree courses in regional colleges. There are colleges like the college in my constituency, which from September will be providing 60 per cent degree courses, but it is obviously the intent of the Government and of the Department of Education to undermine that.
I should welcome the Minister's response. He represents the south-east region which has been badly neglected in terms of economic, industrial and commercial growth. If there is not a proper provision of degree courses, the economic development of the region will be sadly undermined.
The basic principle in my amendment is that the Department of Education in Dublin is not the proper place for education policy and administration to come from. This Government make great play of the subsidiarity provision in the Maastricht Treaty, something we all welcome, but here the Government are flying absolutely in the face of that principle. Those Deputies on the Government side who support these amendments will never be forgiven nor forgotten because of the horrible effect they will have. I understand the Minister was to submit the Green Paper to the Cabinet this morning. It is obvious from leaks that the Government intend to abolish vocational education committees——