EDUCATION minister John O'Dowd has appealed for a speedy resolution to the standoff over the creation of a single education board.
The assembly education committee yesterday heard a request from the minister for accelerated passage for his new education bill.
Mr O'Dowd, pictured, referred to the new board for the first time as the Education Authority, the original name of the shelved Education and Skills Authority. The one board option was presented as an alternative to ESA after rival parties failed to agree its establishment.
While ESA was designed to be a cash-saving body, more than £17 million was spent over eight years trying to get it off the ground.
With no agreement on ESA, there has to be in place for April 2015 a new configuration of board or boards to ensure education administration is compatible with the boundaries of the new 11 district councils.
Under the accelerated passage procedure, a bill can pass all stages in as little as 10 days. This process, which requires cross-community support, skips the committee stage.
Mr O'Dowd told the committee yesterday that the target was to have legislation in place by November, adding that he was working within a tight time scale.
Allowing the bill to go through the normal procedures of house and committee, he said, could see it strung out until February.