Tánaiste’s wife to work for Quinn in VEC reshuffle
Carol Hanney is chief executive of Dún Laoghaire VEC but is one of three permanent CEOs who was to be moved to a different post when the 33 VECs become 16 education and training boards (ETBs) next year.
Although 14 VEC chiefs are in the job on an acting basis and will return to their former jobs, only 16 posts will be available to the 19 permanent CEOs when Mr Quinn establishes the ETBs under laws currently going through the Oireachtas.
Under arrangements agreed between the Department of Education and Siptu on behalf of the chiefs executive, the most senior serving VEC bosses were given the choice of which ETB they would head up.
The details were finalised in the summer, leaving three surplus CEOs to be redeployed. Along with Co Louth VEC boss Padraig Kirk, Ms Hanney will move to the Department of Education, as longer serving CEOs from other VECs take over their roles.
She will be a policy specialist on further education and training, a sector undergoing significant reform that includes the ETBs being formed and taking over Fás training centres. A Department of Education spokesperson said the role was not a political appointment and it reflected the priority Mr Quinn puts on the sector.
Mr Kirk is a former department inspector and will become director for in-service training of teachers on junior cycle reform.
George O’Callaghan was to move from heading up Co Clare VEC to the new ETB being formed by the merger of Cork city and county VECs. Instead, the Cork ETB will be taken over in an acting capacity by Cork City VEC chief Ted Owens, the third surplus CEO along with Ms Hanney and Mr Kirk.
Mr O’Callaghan will be based at the Limerick and Clare ETB and be seconded to the department to provide updated analysis on second-level and related provision in Limerick City.
A department spokes-person said the Cork plans would allow for continuity when the city and county VECs merge.
The three surplus VEC bosses will retain their current salaries, while pay scales for the chiefs of the ETBs will range from €102,220 to €123,648 in the nine smaller ones, and from €107,171 to €129,854 in six larger ones.
The department expects to make savings of €2.1m a year when acting CEOs revert to lower-paid former jobs. The VECs have a total annual budget of about €1bn.
