asked the Minister for Justice if he will state, in respect of each year since the Criminal Justice (Legal Aid) Act, 1962 became law, how many applications for legal aid were granted by the Metropolitan Children's Court, Dublin.
42.
Ceisteanna—Questions. Oral Answers. - Dublin Children's Court.
41.
asked the Minister for Justice if he will state in respect of each of the last ten years how many children were brought before the Metropolitan Children's Court, Dublin, on criminal charges.
43.
asked the Minister for Justice if he will state in respect of each of the last ten years how many children were brought before the Metropolitan Children's Court, Dublin, on school attendance offences.
44.
asked the Minister for Justice if he will state in respect of each of the last ten years how many children were brought before the Metropolitan Children's Court, Dublin as being in need of care and protection under the Children Act, 1908.
I propose, with your permission, a Cheann Comhairle, to take Questions Nos. 41, 42, 43 and 44 together and, as the reply contains an amount of statistical material in tabular form, to have it circulated with the Official Report.
Following is the reply:
Statistics are compiled in relation to the numbers of cases that are heard by the court rather than the numbers of persons who appear before it. No statistics are available classifying the offences dealt with by the court or segregating cases that involve offences from those that do not.
In reply to a Parliamentary Question on 17th June, 1971, figures were given of cases heard by the court in each of the four calendar years 1967 to 1970 inclusive. The figures for the previous six calendar years are as follows:
|
1961 |
14,413 |
|
1962 |
11,924 |
|
1963 |
11,818 |
|
1964 |
9,956 |
|
1965 |
8,882 |
|
1966 |
10,777 |
The figures include cases against adults who were charged jointly with juveniles and also cases against adults who were summoned in respect of school attendance offences. A break-down of the figures to show cases involving only children is not available but it may be taken that such cases represented the great majority of the total.
The numbers of applications in the last ten years under section 58 of the Children Act, 1908, for the committal of a child to a certified school, and the numbers of children actually so committed, are as follows:—
|
Year ending 31st July |
Applications |
Committals |
|
1961 |
464 |
318 |
|
1962 |
535 |
292 |
|
1963 |
529 |
249 |
|
1964 |
388 |
164 |
|
1965 |
430 |
202 |
|
1966 |
384 |
155 |
|
1967 |
261 |
115 |
|
1968 |
229 |
73 |
|
1969 |
173 |
68 |
|
1970 |
193 |
61 |
A break-down of these figures showing applications and committals made because of the commission of offences and those made on the grounds of destitution, lack of proper guardianship, etc., is not available from court statistics but attention is invited to Table 10 of the Reformatory and Industrial Schools Systems Report, 1970 (Prl. 1342).
In reply to the Parliamentary Question of 17th June, 1971, figures were given of applications for legal aid which were granted by the court in each of the calendar years 1967 to 1970 inclusive as well as in the first five months of the present year. The legal aid scheme came into operation on the 1st April, 1965. Two applications for legal aid were granted by the court in the nine months to the end of that year and one application was granted by the court in 1966.