asked the Minister for Education whether he will introduce legislation amending the School Attendance Act to provide that a conscientious parent anxious to safeguard the health of his children may, if he so wishes, without fear of prosecution, refuse to send his child to a school which a competent medical authority has described as a danger to health.
Ceisteanna—Questions. Oral Answers. - Amendment of School Attendance Act.
I do not propose to introduce amending legislation to cover hypothetical cases. Apart from this I am satisfied that the existing legislation is adequate for its purpose.
May I ask the Minister does he think it either right or just that a conscientious parent should be put to the trouble and expense of defending his case in court when he has no control over, and no remedy whatsoever for, the situation in a particular school?
Where circumstances are such as those to which the Deputy has referred, the school attendance authorities as a rule inform the Department that they do not intend to prosecute people who refuse to send their children to school pending the outcome of an examination of the particular case by the Department.
Secondly, I should imagine that a person who is conscientious on the grounds of the injury that might be done to his child by sending it to a school which he thinks is below the standard required would welcome a prosecution in order to ventilate his particular grievance.
I think the Minister does not understand the antipathy people have to going to court and spending money unnecessarily. Surely the Minister is aware that, in relation to factory and office premises, it is the employer who is charged in cases of dereliction in that regard. A similar position obtains in the case of landlords and tenants; it is the landlord who is charged and not the tenant. Surely in this case it should be the manager or the Department of Education since they are responsible for the position? They are the people who should be held responsible in court if they show any dereliction of their duty in that regard.
The Deputy has a bad habit of making speeches on supplementary questions.
Is it not right that the law should be brought into line?
The Deputy makes speeches on every question.
The answer is so unsatisfactory I have to try to elicit further information.
The Deputy has other means of ventilating the matter in this House, if he so desires, but not at Question Time.
If the Deputy has any knowledge of any particular hardships incurred by people who have to attend court in circumstances such as he has mentioned, I shall be glad to hear about them. I have no knowledge of them.