Vol. 463 No. 3
245 Mr. D. Ahern asked the Minister for Education the plans, if any, she has for the vocational educational committee structure, particularly the smaller vocational education committees, like the town of Drogheda Vocational Education Committee in view of the proposed setting up of new regional education boards; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [6199/96]
The White Paper on education, Charting our Education Future, sets out Government policy in this area. The vocational education system plays and will continue to play, through the education boards, a significant role in the development and provision of education services. It has been decided that there will be legislative reform and rationalisation of the vocational education committee system.
The White Paper states an important factor in considering the geographic remit of vocational education committees was the need for a sufficiently large area to provide for the effective concentration, rather than a wide dispersal, of resources. Judged by this criterion, the areas of jurisdiction of many of the existing vocational education committees would appear to be too small to be cost effective.
