Mayo Vocational Education Committee is to be merged with Sligo and Leitrim VECs following an announcement by the Minister for Education and Skills Ruairí Quinn on Wednesday.
The decision has been met with dismay by the Irish Vocational Education Association, the representative body for VECs, which said it undermined local democracy.
The move is part of a reconfiguration nationwide which will see the 33 VECs being merged into 16.
Mayo TD Michelle Mulherin has called on the Minister to locate the newly created organisation’s headquarters in Ballina. She said the educational needs of the school children and adult learners in all three counties would be best served by establishing a completely new headquarters in Ballina, where she said the VEC already has a strong base.
Deputy Mulherin added: “The new VEC will serve a huge geographical area and Ballina will be the most central large town, being as accessible to Ballinrobe as it is to Ballinamore or Ballinode. The transition from three organisations to one will involve considerable challenges for the new partners but the overriding concern must be the educational needs of the students. The transition, therefore, must be swift and smooth.”
IVEA general secretary Michael Moriarty said the IVEA had presented proposals for a minimum of 20 VECs with at most two counties combined.
“We have consistently argued that remote multi-county regional structures would be too large and too far removed from local communities. Unfortunately the Minister has not altered the number of new VEC entities and this is a gravely disappointing outcome for us,” said Mr Moriarty.
In making the announcement Minister Quinn said: “I am pressing ahead with the work on restructuring the VEC system. I was prepared to take a fresh look at how best to bring about a reduction in the number of VECs and gave considerable weight to a submission made to me by the IVEA who had expressed concerns regarding the configuration decided by the previous government.
“Today’s decision confirms that the number of VECs will be reduced to 16 but involves different mergers to those previously announced.”
Minister Quinn also indicated that legislation to bring about the changes was being prepared and that it would involve the consolidation of the provisions of the existing nine Vocational Acts into one new bill.
“This new bill will reflect the important role which these new entities will play in relation to education and training in the future,” he added.
