Regional Technical Colleges (Amendment) Act, 1994

Governing body.

4.—(1) Upon the expiration of the term of office of a governing body, the ordinary members shall be appointed by the Minister, on the recommendation of the vocational education committee, in accordance with the following provisions:

(a) six persons of whom at least three shall be members of a local authority shall be nominated by the vocational education committee;

(b) if the region served by the college includes all or part of the functional area of one or more than one vocational education committee other than the vocational education committee in whose functional area the college is situated, the Minister may direct that one or more, but not more than four in all, of the persons to whom paragraph (a) relates, shall be nominated by such of those other committees as the Minister may specify;

(c) two persons, one of whom shall be a woman and one a man, being members of the academic staff of the college who are employed on a permanent, full-time basis or who are required, during the period beginning on the 1st day of September preceding the election and ending on the following 31st day of August, to teach not less than 280 time-tabled hours in the college, or such other number of hours as the Minster may from time to time specify, shall be elected by that staff in accordance with regulations made by the governing body;

(d) one person, being a member of the staff (other than the academic staff) of the College who are employed on a permanent, full-time basis or who are required, during the period beginning on the 1st day of September preceding the election and ending on the following 31st day of August, to work not less than 50 per cent. of the number of hours which a full-time member of such staff is required to work, shall be elected by that staff in accordance with regulations made by the governing body;

(e) two persons, one of whom shall be a woman and one a man, being registered students of the college, shall be chosen in accordance with regulations made by the governing body; and for the purposes of this provision registered students shall include full-time officers of the Students Union or other student representative body recognised by the governing body for that purpose;

(f) one person shall be nominated by the Irish Congress of Trade Unions;

(g) five persons shall be nominated by the vocational education committee from among persons nominated to that committee by such organisations as the college, on the recommendation of the academic council considers require representation having regard to the particular courses provided by the college, excluding interests otherwise represented on the governing body. Such organisations shall be representative of industry, agriculture, commerce, the professions and other interests as appropriate to the activities of the college.

(2) In making recommendations to the Minister pursuant to subsection (1), the vocational education committee shall—

(a) ensure that not fewer than seven of those so recommended are women and not fewer than seven are men, and

(b) make such recommendations subject to such directives as may be issued by the Minister from time to time, including directives relating to an appropriate gender balance among the persons nominated by the vocational education committee under paragraph (a) of subsection (1).

(3) Subsection (1) is in substitution for subsection (4) of section 6 of the Principal Act, which is hereby repealed, and any reference in the Principal Act to that subsection shall be read as a reference to subsection (1) of this section.

(4) The provisions of paragraph (c) of subsection (1) shall apply to any elections as provided therein, held with effect from the 1st day of April, 1994.