Agenda item

            The Committee was reminded that, at its meeting on 11th December, it had considered a report concerning correspondence which had been received on 8th December from the Minster for Education inviting the Council to make nominations to the Transitional Board of the Belfast Education and Library Board, pending the establishment of the new Education and Skills Authority.  The Minister, in order to comply with the Code of Practice of the Commissioner for Public Appointments, had requested that two nominees be put forward for each of the four places to which the Council would be entitled.  The names of the eight nominees were to be sent to the Department by 16th December.

            The Head of Committee and Members’ Services pointed out that Members had been given two options to consider.  The first option had been to determine the Council’s representatives using a one-off selection process based on d’Hondt which resulted in the undernoted choice sequence:

SF                -  Choices 1, 5 and 7

DUP      -      Choices 2, 6 and 8

UUP      -      Choice 3

SDLP    -      Choice 4.

            The second option had been to take the view that the Council, at the commencement of the Council term, had already nominated fourteen representatives to the Belfast Education and Library Board using the d’Hondt process and if the Minister wished to reduce this figure from fourteen to four she should make her selections from that pool of Councillors.

            The Committee had agreed to nominate only four Members to the Belfast Education and Library Board and, based on the use of a one-off d’Hondt selection process, these had comprised one Member from each of the four main Party Groupings on the Council, that is, Sinn Féin, the Democratic Unionists, the Ulster Unionists and the Social Democratic and Labour Party Groupings.

            A letter advising the Minister of the Council’s decision and the names of the four nominees, Councillors Convery, Hartley, Rodgers and Rodway, had been emailed to her officials on 14th December.

            The Head of Committee and Members’ Services reported that further correspondence from the Minister had been received by the Council on 17th February.  In her letter, the Minister reiterated the need for the Council to nominate at least two nominees for each vacancy, claiming that to do otherwise might hold up the selection and appointment process.  She requested that the names of further nominees be forwarded to her by 19th February.

            The Head of Committee and Members’ Services indicated that the Committee had two options to consider.  Firstly, it could decide to confirm its original decision to nominate four Members only, or secondly, it could agree to provide four additional nominees based on the next four choices under the one-off d’Hondt process which had been run in December.  This would result in two further nominees from each of the Sinn Féin and Democratic Unionist Party Groupings, that is, choices 5 and 7 for Sinn Féin and choices 6 and 8 for the Democratic Unionist Party.

            The Committee agreed to affirm its decision of 11th December to nominate only four Members to the four places to which the Council was entitled under legislation on the interim Belfast Education and Library Board.

            The Committee noted that Standing Order 27 provided that a Motion to alter or rescind a resolution of the Council within six months of the date of such resolution would not be competent unless the motion was brought forward as a recommendation of the Committee concerned.  Since the Committee had not recommended any change to its previous decision of 11th December, the Committee’s decision could not therefore be altered at the Council meeting on 1st March.