Clare VEC to merge with Limerick committees

CLARE Vocational Education Committee (VEC) is to merge with Limerick City and County VECs, it was announced this week. However, the implications of the move on staff and services in the county are not immediately clear.
The Minister for Education and Skills, Ruairí Quinn announced on Wednesday that the Government had approved a revised reconfiguration of the Vocational Education Committees system and the total number of VECs countrywide would be reduced to 16.
“We don’t know how the merger will affect us yet,” said chairman of Clare VEC, Independent Councillor Tommy Brennan.
“This has been going on for some time. We don’t know where we stand at present. The last Clare VEC meeting was adjourned and we won’t know what these changes will mean until the next meeting, when we discuss the details of the merger, what its impact on staff would be, where people would apply for third-level grants and so on. It is very hard to make a comment on the merger at this stage,” he continued.
Independent Councillor PJ Ryan also represents Clare County Council on the VEC.
“A merger has been discussed quite a lot over recent meetings. First it was proposed that we would be merged with Tipperary, which was not acceptable. After that, we said we would be open to looking at other proposals but our preferred option is to remain as an independent entity. I don’t think there will be a decision made on this until the VEC meets and discusses it,” he told The Clare Champion.
However, announcing the decision Minister Quinn stated that he is “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 Irish Vocational Education Association (IVEA), who had expressed concerns regarding the configuration decided by the previous Government,” he went on, adding, “I believe the set of mergers approved by the Government today is more appropriate.”
Clare County Councillors lobbied Tánaiste and Minister for Foreign Affairs Eamon Gilmore as recently as last Friday in relation to the proposed merger of VECs. But at the time the councillors were under the impression that the Government’s plan was to merge the Clare committee with that of North Tipperary.
Wednesday’s decision confirms that the number of VECs will be reduced from 33 to 16 but involves different mergers to those previously announced.
“The peripheral position of Kerry is now recognised, the merger of the two Tipperary VECs will be more cohesive in a county context and the merger of Cork city and county VECs aligns the position in Cork with that planned for Limerick, Waterford and Galway,” explained the Minister.
Minister Quinn also indicated that legislation to bring about the changes is 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,” Minister Quinn concluded.