A CHURCH of Ireland bishop has called for a review of how legislation governing vocational education committees is implemented after a nominee of the church lost out to a Fine Gael candidate.
Bishop of Cork, Cloyne and Ross Paul Colton said he believed that it was “wholly inappropriate” that one of four positions on Cork County VEC reserved for community representatives should be coveted by political parties that already had representatives on the 25-person committee.
The controversy arose after Monday’s meeting of Cork County Council, when Fine Gael nominated former mayor of Cork county Tom Sheahan, who lost his council seat in 2009, to fill one of the four community representative positions on the Cork VEC.
According to the Department of Education, these four community members are required to be representative of community interests, such as students, voluntary organisations and trustees of community colleges, and must comprise two men and two women.
In the previous Cork County VEC committee, the two community positions held by men had been occupied by nominees of both the Catholic Church and the Church of Ireland, which had been ratified by members of Cork County Council.
On Monday, Fianna Fáil proposed maintaining the status quo by proposing Fr Tom Deenihan, who was nominated jointly by the Catholic diocese of Cork and Ross and the Catholic diocese of Cloyne, and Canon George Salter, who was nominated by Bishop Colton.
Fine Gael, which controls the council, instead proposed Mr Sheahan and Fr Deenihan. When the votes were counted, Fr Deenihan was chosen with 35 votes, followed by Mr Sheahan on 24 votes, with Canon Salter losing out on 13 votes.
Bishop Colton told The Irish Timeshe believed the four community positions should be allocated to people nominated from such sectors as teacher unions, business bodies, Irish-language interests and voluntary associations.
Stressing that he understood no church has an automatic entitlement to representation on a VEC, Bishop Colton pointed out that, given the largest number of people on the VEC who are members of the county council, political interests are already adequately provided for in its make-up.
“Churches and community groups should have a reasonable and open opportunity of securing one of the four seats allocated to their category. They should not find that party political interests have harnessed some of those community seats as well,” he said.
A spokesman for the Catholic Cork and Ross diocese supported Bishop Colton’s call for a review, saying the Vocational Education Amendment Act 2001 does not provide for statutory representation for either co-trustees or for church bodies.
Fianna Fáil leader on Cork County Council Cllr Alan Coleman said that “a religious minority had been sacrificed on the altar of political expediency” by Fine Gael’s decision to break with the model of church representatives being nominated to the VEC committee.
Fine Gael’s leader on Cork County Council Cllr Michael Hegarty said the council had voted within the legislation, but he agreed with Bishop Colton’s call for a review of the situation as he believed the churches were entitled to representation on the VEC.