asked the Minister for Justice whether he proposes to provide equipment and skilled personnel at the remand house for juvenile delinquents to ensure adequate psychological and physical examination of juveniles on remand for the information of the district justice presiding in the Children's Court.
Ceisteanna—Questions. Oral Answers. - Juvenile Delinquents.
Mr. Boland
As I stated in reply to a previous similar question, there is an arrangement in force for the medical examination of young offenders in cases where the justice of the District Court considers such an examination necessary to enable him to decide what treatment he should order for the offenders. The examinations are performed by members of the panel of doctors appointed by the President of the High Court as medical visitors to persons suffering from mental derangements who are under the care of the court.
I do not propose to alter these arrangements for the present.
I understand, however, that the Minister for Health has under consideration a proposal for the establishment of child guidance clinics as part of a general scheme for the treatment of mentally deficient persons. If such clinics are established, I hope that it will be possible to use them for the examination of child delinquents who come before the courts, and I am of opinion that such an arrangement would be more satisfactory than the establishment of a special clinic in the remand home.
Does the Minister advert to the fact that the person directing the detention of a child in a remand home is himself quite incompetent to determine the question as to whether the particular child requires treatment or not, and, unless we pass all delinquent children on remand through such an observation centre, we may gravely mistreat the child for the reason that the presiding justice is not conscious of the fact that its juvenile aberration is due to some psychological defect rather than the ordinary delinquency of a normal person? Bearing that in mind, will the Minister consider directing the district justice to refer all delinquent children on remand to such a clinic, so that he may have before him a certificate as to whether each individual child may be regarded as normal or in some measure affected by a psychiatric condition?
Mr. Boland
I think the district justice ought to have a good idea himself when he sees the child before him whether it requires such an examination or not. At present, if he thinks the child requires to be examined, he can order that to be done. He has a panel of doctors. I think the scheme proposed by the Minister for Health will be much more satisfactory. I am not prepared to have a special clinic set up for these offenders. A good smacking might cure them better than anything else.
Exactly.
Mr. Boland
I am not prepared to have anything like that type of clinic in connection with this remand home.
The all-important thing to determine is whether the child is the type of child who requires a good smacking. I want to be certain, when I am rolling up my sleeve to give the child the requisite smacking, that I can do so in the full knowledge that I am doing the right thing and, therefore, can give the right kind of smacking. But, if my smacking is conditioned by the doubt in my mind that maybe I mistreated a psychiatric child, the result will be that those who want a smacking will not get it, and those who will be injured by a smacking will get a kind of quasi-smacking that will do all the harm and none of the good of a good walloping.