Dáil Éireann Debate, Tuesday - 4 November 2014
962. Deputy Michael McCarthy asked the Minister for Education and Skills the number of quangos set up since 2011 in her Department; the number of members of same; the cost and expense incurred to date including details of the briefs that they cover; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [42513/14]
View answerFor the Deputy's information, following the enactment of the Residential Institutions Statutory Fund Act 2012, the Education Finance Board was dissolved in March 2013 and the Residential Institutions Statutory Fund Board (Cara Nua) was established. The body is funded from the contributions of the religious congregations offered in response to the request for additional contributions, following the publication of the Ryan Report. The function of the body is to utilise the cash contributions of up to €110m pledged by religious congregations to support the needs of persons who, as children, experienced abuse in residential institutions in Ireland and have received settlements from the Residential Institutions Redress Board or Court awards. There are currently 8 members of the board of Cara Nua.
Under the provisions of the Further Education and Training Act 2013, FÁS was dissolved in October 2013 and the new training authority, An tSeirbhís Oideachais Leanúnaigh agus Scileanna (SOLAS)was established with responsibility for funding, planning and co-ordinating training and further education programmes. SOLAS was established on 27 October 2013 and funded for the remainder of the year from the residual FAS budget. The proposed budget for SOLAS in 2014 is €640.445 million.The majority of this funding is paid out to the Education and Training Boards by way of grants to fund the delivery of further education and training.There are currently 13 members of the board of SOLAS.
Under the Public Service Reform plan a number of bodies were merged as follows. The Irish Research Council for Science, Engineering and Technology and Irish Research Council for Humanities and Social Sciences were merged in March 2012 to form the Irish Research Council (IRC). The IRC has been established as a sub-board of the Higher Education Authority (HEA). Its function is to award research funding, primarily for postgraduate students and early-career postdoctoral researchers. The establishment of the IRC will result in an estimated saving of €100,000 on an annual basis. There are currently 12 members of the board of the IRC.
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 a new agency, the Quality and Qualifications Ireland (QQI). QQI's functions are set out in Section 9 of the Qualifications and Quality Assurance (Education and Training) Act, 2012. These include the development of awards and standards, review of education and training providers, development of quality assurance, validation of programmes, maintenance of the National Framework of Qualifications and facilitation of qualification recognition.The estimated saving following the merger is €1 million on annual basis. There are currently 10 members of the board of QQI.
Under the provisions of the Education and Training Boards Act 2013, 16 Education and Training Boards (ETBs) have replaced 33 Vocational Education Committees (VECs). The functions of ETBs are set out in Section 10 of the Education and Training Boards Act 2013. ETBs provide second-level education in 254 post primary schools and are the main providers of adult and community education. 11 of the boards provide training directly through former FÁS centres. They also deliver education in prisons, children detention schools and certain facilities maintained by the HSE. ETBs also provide youth work services under the auspices of the Department of Children and Youth Affairs. Following re-configuration of the VECs, full year savings are estimated at €2.1m. Further savings are likely to be achieved through the realisation of economies of scale arising from the mergers and the wider Education and Training Sector Reform Programme. There are 336 members of the boards of ETBs.
