Agenda item

            The Committee was reminded that it was intended that the five Education and Library Boards should be replaced with an Education and Skills Authority.  That required political agreement at Assembly level and, in the period prior to the establishment of the new body, streamlined Education and Library Boards were being put in place as an interim measure.

            The Democratic Services Manager reminded the Committee that, at its meeting on 11th December, 2009, it had considered a request from the Minister for Education to put forward, in line with the guidelines published by the Commissioner for Public Appointments, the names of at least eight Councillors who would be willing to sit on the transitional Board.  The Committee had agreed to nominate only four Members with the representatives being selected using a one-off d’Hondt process.  That had resulted in the nominations falling to the Sinn Féin, Democratic Unionist, Ulster Unionist and Social Democratic and Labour Party Groupings, with Councillors Convery, Hartley, Rodgers and Rodway having been put forward for selection.

            Subsequently, further correspondence had been received from the Minister on 17th February reiterating the need for the Council to nominate at least two persons for each vacancy and requesting that an additional four names be forwarded to her.  That had been drawn to the Committee’s attention at its meeting on 19th February, when it had been decided to affirm the decision of 11th December to nominate only four Members to the four places to which the Council was entitled under the legislation.

            The Democratic Services Manager explained that the Minister for Education had written again to the Council requesting it to review its position with a view to providing a total of eight nominees in order to comply with the guidelines of the Commissioner for Public Appointments.  In her letter, the Minister had explained that she was required to follow the procedures laid down by the Commissioner and that twenty-four out of the twenty-five other Councils in Northern Ireland had complied with the request to provide multiple nominees.  Accordingly, the Committee, at its meeting on 21st May, had agreed to an additional four nominees, which were to be provided by the same four Party Groupings as previously agreed, being forwarded to the Minister for consideration for appointment to the interim Belfast and Education Library Board, on the basis that the Minister would agree that the final selections made by her would entail one selection from each of the four largest Party Groupings on the Council.  That decision had been ratified by the Council at its meeting on 1st June.  However, the Democratic Unionist Party Grouping had refused to nominate a second candidate and a letter was sent to the Minister on 9th June supplying seven names requesting that the Minister make her selections from that list, whilst ensuring that one Member of each of the four largest Party Groupings on the Council was included.

            A further letter had now been received from the Department of Education indicating that two of the seven candidates nominated by the Council, that is, Councillors D. Browne and N. Kelly, had subsequently informed the Department that they no longer wished to be considered for the appointments.  Accordingly, the Department had asked for the submission of an additional three names in order to allow the process to proceed.

            After discussion, it was agreed that it be left to each of the four main Party Groupings to decide whether to submit one or two names to the Minister to be considered for appointment to the transitional Board.