The Education and Training Boards Bill sets out to merge the existing 33 VECs and their administrations into 16 new entities. It does not, in any way, seek to tamper with the allocation of resources for schools, further education centres, or other educational programmes provided by the VECs. Each of the new Boards together with the CEO as the accountable person will have to account for the use of resources provided to the Board for education provision in the entire area which it covers. Existing processes within the Department for resource allocation in respect of educational establishments under the auspices of any Education and Training Board will still continue and the Board/CEO will be accountable for deployment of any such resources for the purposes for which they have been allocated.
Consequently, I am satisfied that allocation of the 10 local authority members where more than one local authority will fall within the ETB area, on the basis of population, based on the most recent census, is the most appropriate and fair way to devise the proportions in which each local authority will be represented on the new boards.
