VECs to be merged!

wingnut

Co. Limerick, City of Limerick and Kerry VEC will be merged into one. We will end up with 16 VECs in total. Will cut down a lot of admin but I wonder how it will affect the grunts at the chalkface. Transfers CID etc will come into play.

delta_bravo

Its funny how Donegal will remain in place.

Are Dublin City and County to remain separate?

looksee

I can't see that it will make a lot of difference. It has been very handy to have the office close to hand for sorting employment stuff but really that's not a big deal.

Hopefully they will move admin staff on a basis of natural wastage and voluntary redundancy, but over all it seems like a reasonable way of reducing costs.

implausible

delta_bravo wrote: »

Its funny how Donegal will remain in place.

Why? It's the fifth largest in the country, plus it's geographically isolated. It makes sense that it would remain as it is.

Personally, I think this is a good move, finance-wise - less buildings and staff to pay for. They may become a bit more stream-lined and efficient if there are less of them. If some of the smaller ones are combined, it may force some consistency on them re: contracts and appointments. Or maybe I'm being a bit too optimistic here.

I've always felt that the grants system is mental as well. Why not have one office per county dealing with them? There's a massive duplication of functions and resources with social welfare, so why not let SW absorb this job?

I wouldn't like to be putting in for a transfer in some of the new amalgamated areas though:eek:

rainbowtrout

Link anyone???
EDIT: Nevermind

http://www.irishtimes.com/newspaper/breaking/2010/1012/breaking59.html

Going to be in Leitrim, Roscommon, Longford. That makes sense, the three are small. There was concern in this area that we would be merged with Mayo which is way bigger than us.

rainbowtrout

New VEC list


1. Co. Dublin and Dun Laoighre
2. Galway City and County
3. Limerick City, County and Co. Kerry
4. Waterford City, County and South Tipperary
5. Carlow, Kilkenny, Kildare
6. Louth and Meath
7. Cavan and Monaghan
8. Mayo and Sligo
9. Roscommon, Leitrim and Longford
10. Clare and North Tipperary


Those are the new mergers. I assume the other six are existing VECs?

Donegal
Cork City
Cork County
City of Dublin
Laois
Offaly
Westmeath
Wicklow
Wexford

That makes 19, I assume Laois Offaly and Westmeath would be a natural merge and Wicklow Wexford as the other, they weren't in the list

Bally8

Starting to worry a little about this. Do you think teachers working in Youthreach etc could be affected by the merges? Or is it only going to affect management and admin staff?

gaeilgegrinds1

I don't think anyone can categorically say what will happen but there are many changes coming. I'd say if you have your CID you're fairly ok but those without could well be in trouble. There's very little that can be done though other than do the job we have to our best ability and of course union meetings. I only got my CID after pressure was put on from them. And then I left but that's another story!

rainbowtrout

Bally8 wrote: »

Starting to worry a little about this. Do you think teachers working in Youthreach etc could be affected by the merges? Or is it only going to affect management and admin staff?

I think primarily the aim would be to cut down on admin staff. 33 CEOs to 16 for starters, and removal of many of the admin staff. I would assume that those there longterm will be given a few extra years on their pension to encourage them to leave early. It's that redeployment to other government departments where feasible or compulsory redundancy. It wouldn't make sense to cut the number of VECs and keep on all of the staff.

A couple of years down the line from that, some streamlining may occur within teaching. If the allocation is normally awarded to a VEC rather than an individual school, it would make sense to award an allocation based on the newly merged VEC rather than 2 or 3 separate allocations per VEC. If there are teachers on CID within a school in Roscommon (my VEC) it's feasible that under the new arrangement that they could be redeployed to a school in Leitrim or Longford (if it's within 30 miles) if there aren't enough hours in their school but there are in another. Of course this would have a knock on effect on part time teachers in other schools.

Godge

delta_bravo wrote: »

Its funny how Donegal will remain in place.

Its funny that the Minister is from Donegal

implausible

Godge wrote: »

Its funny that the Minister is from Donegal

What part of it being the fifth largest VEC in the country did you miss?:rolleyes:

maynooth_rules

Hopefully the benefit of this will be the pointless admin staff and instead putting the funds towards teachers.