asked the Minister for Education if he will make a statement on a recent report which stressed the incidence of mental handicap in juvenile offenders; and the steps he proposes to take in the matter.
Ceisteanna—Questions. Oral Answers. - Mental Handicap Report.
5.
I presume the report referred to is that presented recently by the Committee of Management of the Children's Centre which is operated on behalf of my Department at Finglas, County Dublin. The report draws attention to a number of risk factors to which the children referred to the centre have been subject, including the fact that a significant number of them are in the mild mental handicap range or bordering on it. It is a feature of the usual pattern of delinquency to find a higher incidence of mental handicap among young offenders than in the child population generally.
The report suggested that there appeared to be need for an expansion of the special education facilities for mildly mentally handicapped children, especially in the Dublin area. The 1965 Commission of Inquiry on Mental Handicap recommended that, as an immediate target, special education suited to the needs of mildly mentally handicapped pupils should be provided for 1 per cent of the school-going population by 1975. On this basis, the commission estimated that 1,100 pupils would have to be provided for in the Dublin/Dún Laoghaire area. This target has, in fact, been exceeded—a total of 1,314 places has been provided in the area for children technically classified as mildly mentally handicapped, plus a further 480 who would be borderline cases
Experience shows, however, that it is only as facilities are made available that pupils needing them are discovered. In association with the school management authorities, further places will be provided for the mildly mentally handicapped according as the needs are determined by the appropriate diagnostic procedures. However, because of the many other factors associated with delinquency the provision of special school places alone cannot, in itself, be effective in tackling the problem.
Is there any guard against the possibility of a youngster being sent away, not because he is a delinquent but because he is mentally handicapped? Could a boy be sentenced for committing an offence even though he is mentally handicapped?
The Deputy should be aware that the approach of the assessment centre in Finglas is not one of sanctioning the offence which may technically have been committed by the youngster. The purpose of this centre is to diagnose a treatment which is suitable to the needs of the young person. Among the recommendations which might be made by the centre would be that the child be allowed to stay in its own home but would be admitted to a special school catering for the needs of children with mild mental handicap. If it happens that it is decided that the child should be admitted to one of the special schools for children who have been in trouble with the law, it is worth noting that the pupil-teacher ratio in these schools is very much more favourable than it would be in ordinary schools, 12:1 as against an approximately 32:1 in the normal national school. Children with special difficulties can be dealt with very effectively from an educational point of view.