Agenda item

            The Committee considered the undernoted report:

“1     Relevant Background Information

1.1    Members will recall that, at the meeting on 18th May, 2012, the Committee was reminded that correspondence has been received from the Department of Education indicating that, following the selection process which had been carried out to appoint 4 Members to the Board from the 8 names submitted, which involved the completion of application forms by the nominees, an eligibility sift of applications against the criteria and, for those who met the eligibility criteria, a conversation with a purpose, the outcome was that three of the nominees did not progress beyond the eligibility sift stage and one candidate had withdrawn from the process.

1.2    This has resulted in only four eligible candidates remaining in the process and the Minister for Education has asked for the current pool of candidates to be augmented before he made his choice of candidates to be appointed.  The Department had therefore requested the Council to submit an additional four nominations, who would be required to undergo the same selection process as that set out above.  It was noted at that time that those Councillors who had previously been nominated and who did not progress beyond the eligibility sift would not be eligible for re-nomination.

1.3          The Committee agreed that the Minister be requested to make as many appointments as possible from those candidates who had already been deemed to be appointable, in line with the Council’s d’Hondt system of proportionality which provided that the four appointments should comprise two Sinn Féin Party representatives and one each from the Democratic Unionist and Social Democratic and Labour Parties, with any places remaining unfilled using this process to be selected from those Parties which had not been offered their entitlement.  In addition, the Committee agreed that should the Minister not agree to make such appointments, then the undernoted process should be employed to select the additional four nominations:

Choice 11 – Democratic Unionist

Choice 12 – Sinn Fein

Choice 13 – Democratic Unionist

Choice 14 – Alliance

1.4    However, if the Democratic Unionist Party maintained its previous position of only submitting one candidate (which it had already done as part of the process in October, 2011), then the nominations from the Parties willing to supply names would fall to:

Choice 12 – Sinn Fein

Choice 14 – Alliance

Choice 15 – Ulster Unionist

Choice 16 – Sinn Fein

2       Key Issues

2.1    Correspondence has now been received from the Department indicating that the Minister is unwilling to make any appointments to the Board until he receives an additional 4 nominations from the Council and those persons have completed the selection process.  Accordingly, in line with the Committee decision of 18th May, the Party Leaders concerned have been requested to provide the names of suitable candidates.

3       Resource Implications

3.1    None.

4       Equality and Good Relations Implications

4.1    None.  The identification of those Parties entitled to nominate Members for consideration for appointment is based upon the Council’s accepted system of proportionality.

5       Recommendations

5.1    The Committee is requested to note the information.”

            The Committee noted the information which had been provided.