The Minister referred to the constitutional provisions in regard to education. It would be very well if he were to keep them in mind. Article 42 of the Constitution deals with the question of education and sets out:
The State acknowledges that the primary and natural educator of the child is the Family and guarantees to respect the inalienable right and duty of parents to provide, according to their means, for the religious and moral, intellectual, physical and social education of their children.
Then it goes on to say:
Parents shall be free to provide this education in their homes or in private schools or in schools recognised or established by the State.
The Minister has pointed out that he is aiming to deal with a particular type of case here. I recognise the Minister's dilemma. Later on in Article 42, the Constitution envisages the point the Minister has been making:
In exceptional cases, where the parents for physical or moral reasons fail in their duty towards their children, the State as guardians of the common good, by appropriate means shall endeavour to supply the place of the parents, but always with due regard for the natural and imprescriptible rights of the child.
The Minister presumably did not intend to scoff at the Constitution's provisions when he made his earlier remarks. I say these provisions are important not only in regard to the recognition of the family as the primary and natural educator of the child but also with regard to paragraph 5 of Article 42 which envisages the intervention of the State in the interests of the child.
The Minister, in reply to the remarks I made earlier as regards the possible lasting or long-lasting effect on the mind of the child, said that what he is trying to do here is to bring in machinery which will benefit the child by ensuring that greater damage, by reason of neglect, will not ensure to the child. That is the Minister's dilemma. I am not for a moment suggesting that he is concerned to bring in harsh measures for the sake of bringing in harsh measures. I am sure he is not. I am sure his interest in this is on behalf of the child to ensure that the constitutional provision in relation to the intervention of the State will be scrupulously carried out. All I am asking is that in relation to this amendment the Minister should go some distance to meet us—that he should thereby ensure that if it can be avoided there will be no question of a warrant being issued to a Garda superintendent which will enable the superintendent to bring the child to the court without the knowledge of the parents or guardians and possibly in a manner which would be frightening to the child.
I am suggesting that as a possible via media the warrant issued to the superintendent should require him to ensure the attendance of the parent or guardian. The Minister says that the whole reason for the amendment is to deal with cases in which parents cannot be found. If that is the difficulty I find it hard to see the force of the argument or the extent of the difficulty. We are talking of children of tender years and it seems to me unlikely that they would be left to fend for themselves by their parents. The police force in this country are as competent as any in the world and I do not think it would be beyond their ability to enforce a warrant directing attendance of parents or guardians.
If the Minister does not go the whole length with me in this argument, I ask him at least to ensure that before any such warrant would be executed notice of the issue of the warrant would be given to the parents or guardians. I do not think that would hinder the matter in any way and at least it would ensure, in so far as the Minister can do it, that the parents will get an opportunity of attending court when their child is brought before it. Under the amendment as it stands a situation can arise in which the child could be brought before a court without the parents' knowledge and the court could proceed to order that the child, without the parents' knowledge, be sent to an industrial school or even to the care of somebody else. That will happen and that is happening.