Vol. 486 No. 1
868 Mr. Rabbitte asked the Minister for Education and Science his views and proposals, if any, for education fora in each county; when these will be set up; their proposed composition and functions; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [1442/98]
I am strongly committed to the principle of partnership and the involvement of the partners in education in the development of our education system. I am also committed to the principle of co-operation at local level among all the bodies with an interest or an involvement in education. The Education Bill which I presented to this House in December 1997 provides a broad statutory support for such partnership and co-operation. Of particular relevance to this question is section 6 (e) of the Bill which states that one of the objectives on which the Bill is founded is the promotion of effective liaison and consultation between schools, centres for education, patrons, teachers, parents, the communities served by schools, local authorities, health boards and the Minister.
However, it is not my intention to legislate in a prescriptive way for local partnerships and co-operation and I do not propose to establish an intermediate administrative tier for the education system. I am strongly of the view that such a tier is unnecessary and would not deliver advantages commensurate with its cost. The priority for me, and for the Government, as set out in An Action Programme for the Millennium, is to concentrate our efforts on meeting people's needs and parental choice in education rather than on bureaucratic or administrative structures. I intend, therefore, to channel such resources as are available for education directly into the schools and other education institutions.
In addition, my aim will be to encourage the growth of local partnerships and co-operation in education, which already exist, and to enable them to develop in an organic way as the needs of communities require. This does not need prescriptive statutory provisions which could, in practice, restrict development or involve the expenditure of scarce resources on bureaucracy.
In line with this, I would envisage some form of locally based cosultative and co-ordinating structure developing, probably at county level, in the future. Indeed, this is a matter to which I propose to progress later this year, following the enactment of the Education Bill and further progress on the establishment of boards of management.
