Councillor numbers on education committee slashed

Councillors to be reduced on new education committee


Anton McNulty
antonmcnulty@mayonews.ie

The new Mayo/Sligo/Leitrim Education and Training Board which will replace the current Mayo VEC will only have ten local authority councillors on its new board, it has been revealed.
Under the present format, 15 local authority councillors are members of Mayo VEC but the number of Mayo councillors on the new enlarged board is expected to be reduced to four at the most.
The make-up of the new Education and Training Board (ETB) was outlined by Dr Katie Sweeney, CEO of Mayo VEC who explained that only ten local authority representatives from Mayo, Sligo and Leitrim will sit on the board. The board will consist of 18 members in total with the councillors joined by two ETB staff members, two parents representatives and four members from bodies representing community interests.
The ETB’s are to come into existence in 2014 and it is expected that four councillors will come from Mayo while Sligo and Leitrim will have three each.
Pat Kilbane told the meeting that vocational education as they know it will no longer exist when the ETB bill passes through the Oireachtas in 2013, and that they were in a difficult place. He said breaking up the county boundaries was a retrograde step and feels that will be proved in the future.
Cllr Johnny O’Malley was equally dismissive of the new board and the proposal to reduce the number of local representatives to ten. He said at the present time every corner of Mayo was represented and feels that four councillors will not represent the needs of the county.
Cllr Therese Ruane added that the committee ‘are where we are’ with the new system which she said proposes both opportunities and challenges for them.

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