Parents, students and staff of VEC schools will have a statutory right of representation on committees under legislation introduced in the House yesterday by the Minister for Education, Dr Woods.

The Vocational Education (Amendment) Bill will modernise legislation that has been in place since 1930 when the first VEC was set up.

Fine Gael's education spokesman, Mr Michael Creed, welcomed the Bill and said there was nothing hugely contentious in the legislation.

Labour's education spokeswoman, Ms Roisin Shortall, described the legislation as long overdue and conservative. She said the principal weaknesses of VECs was that "they have been over-politicised". That had led to a certain amount of cynicism on the part of teachers and other stakeholders in education. However, they had played a useful role in the non-discriminatory way they had encouraged people to attend their schools.

She said the cynicism was well founded. "This is particularly due to the way the Minister's party has exploited opportunities to gain control of a sector that was important in the community from the point of view of local public representatives."

Dr Woods said the VEC system had been an underlying strength of the education system and the legislation would modernise that. The original legislation was set up at a time "when general second-level education was the preserve of a relatively small fraction of the population" and school attendance was compulsory only up to 14 years.

In addition to a statutory right of representation for parents, students and staff, including teachers, other groups such as voluntary bodies and local business interests would also be considered for membership of each VEC, as well as the existing local authority representation, he said.