"The function of centrioles has been controversial and remains incompletely resolved. This is because centrioles, in and of themselves, do not directly perform any physiological activity. Instead, their role is only to act as a jig or breadboard onto which other functional structures can be built. Centrioles are primarily involved in forming two structures - centrosomes and cilia. Centrioles bias the position of spindle pole formation, but because spindle poles can self-organize, the function of the centriole in mitosis is not obligatory. Consequently, lack of centrioles does not generally prevent mitosis, although recent experiments suggest acentriolar spindles have reduced fidelity of chromosome segregation. In contrast, centrioles are absolutely required for the assembly of cilia, including primary cilia that act as cellular antennae." From: http://www3.interscience.wiley.com/journal/113453994/abstract?CRETRY=1&SRETRY=0

One of the important functions that centrioles perform is the generation of cilia and flagella for cells. These are surface features that cells use for movement. The cells of higher plants have no centrioles because there's no cell anywhere throughout their life cycles which makes cilia or flagella. A cell can make a spindle without centrioles, but it can't make cilia or flagella. The description of the animal cell above points out that at least higher plants have no centrioles in their cells. There are also three kinds of structures found in plant cells and not in animal cells. The centrioles are a pair of structures composed of microtubules. The primary function of centrioles is to generate the cell's cytoskeleton. The cytoskeleton is a system of microtubules and microfilaments which runs all through the cell, particularly just under the plasma membrane. Microtubules and microfilaments are responsible for all kinds of movement functions. For example, the contractile part of a muscle cell is composed of two kinds of microfilaments. And the spindle apparatus which moves chromosomes around during mitosis or meiosis is composed of microtubules.

the function of a centriole is basically for cell division.