Breen argues the case for a VEC sub-office in Ennis

CHAIRMAN of the Oireachtas Committee on Foreign Affairs and Clare TD, Pat Breen argued the case for the provision of VEC sub-office in Ennis, when he raised the issue in Dáil Éireann last week.

The Minister for Education and Skills Ruairi Quinn had previously outlined his proposals to amalgamate Clare VEC with the two VECs in Limerick City and County VECs. On Tuesday afternoon last, he announced Limerick City is the chosen location for the headquarters of the new merged VEC.
During the debate, Deputy Breen voiced his disappointment with the decision not provide a sub-office of the VEC in Ennis. He pointed out that the office in Ennis is very busy and he paid tribute to the staff who he said are doing an “excellent job”.  
“Deputies will be aware that at this time of the year, the VECs deal with a huge volume of applications as they administer the third-level maintenance grants scheme. I know this because my office interacts with County Clare VEC on a daily basis. While applicants can use the online application service, the reality is that each application can generate a number of inquiries, which need to be dealt with on a one-to-one basis. I know of a young man from Kilrush who had to drop into the VEC office in Ennis on four occasions to follow up on his application,” Deputy Breen said.
He asked the Minister of State at the Department of Education and Skills Ciarán Cannon, who was responding to the debate in the absence of the Education and Skills Minister Ruairi Quinn to “have regard to the geography of County Clare when he reconsiders his decision not to locate a sub-office of the new amalgamated VEC in Ennis. The closure of the existing office in Ennis would cause significant inconvenience for many people. A person from Kilrush who has a query with the VEC would have to travel to Limerick, a round trip of 160km.”
Deputy Breen argued that the “retention of a sub-office in Ennis would be cost-neutral because the department owns the building in Ennis”.
“County Clare always seems to be the poor relation when decisions on regional services are being made. We have already lost our accident and emergency service and our Department of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food office to Limerick and now we are about to lose our VEC office,” he concluded.
In his reply, Ciarán Cannon said, “The main purpose of the VEC rationalisation is to bring about greater efficiencies” and in that regard, he said, “The optimum headquarters location for the new merged VEC is within the greater city of Limerick area”.  However, Minister Cannon agreed that in the short-term, a sub-office in Ennis will be maintained in order to facilitate an “orderly merger.”  
Given that a sub-office was being retained in the short-term, Deputy Breen appealed to the minister to take a fresh look at the matter.
However, Minister Cannon said the decision to have a sub-office in each of the seven other locations was driven by the fact of the redeployment distance of 45km. He said the “existing VEC headquarters in the Clare-Limerick Region were all within 45km of one another, so staff redeployment was not going to be an issue.”
Minister Cannon added that non provision of a sub-office in Ennis would not be detrimental to the level of services provided by the merged VEC in that he said, “On a day-to-day basis, I foresee the main interaction between the general public and the VEC structure happening through the locations of the VECs themselves – through their schools and further education and community training centres – as well as through NEES, the national employment and entitlements service, which will be the first port of call for people wanting to avail of further education and training. I do not believe the lack of a sub-office in Ennis will detract from the service that will be available to people in County Clare. I have every confidence in the current staff at Ennis and their soon-to-be-merged colleagues in the area of Limerick, who will continue to provide an excellent service for the people they serve.”