Meeting the VEC Challenge

As previously mentioned, September has been fairly hectic for meetings. As well as the meeting of the full County Council, we'll have completed two area committees, four Draft Development Plan meetings, a traffic management meeting and an OPF (organisation, procedure and finance) meeting by the end of the month. That's not to mention Labour Party meetings, meeting with residents' associations, individual residents and the rest.

I'm not complaining, by the way! It's an honour and a privilege to have been elected and I like to think I attend without making a meal out of it!

But one meeting I didn't mind attending in the slightest was tonight's meeting of the County Dublin Vocational Education Committee. I was nominated to the VEC by South Dublin County Council back in July. Tonight was my second meeting, held in the VEC Offices in Tuansgate, Tallaght - just across the road from the old Woodies.I'm a VEC graduate - having attended Greenhills College VEC from 1995-2001. Anyone who knows me will tell you I'm genuinely passionate about education at all levels; and the wide coverage of the VEC, which runs community schools and colleges at second level, new community primary schools and other educational centres including Traveller training and Youthreach, will hopefully mean that I can help play a part in advancing the education of our communities in the years ahead.

One of the areas I am interested in is the new community model of primary schools being developed by County Dublin VEC; two are already open, Scoil Choilm and Scoil Ghráinne in Dublin 15.

Tonight, I was appointed by the VEC to three Boards of Management until the VEC's "Quinquennial Meeting" in December. The three colleges are Coláiste de hÍde in Tymon, St MacDara's CC in Templeogue and my alma mater, Greenhills College. More meetings in the months ahead, but I really don't mind!