Willie Penrose
Question:6 Mr. Penrose asked the Minister for Justice, Equality and Law Reform the number of prosecutions taken against parents of school children who frequently played truant; and if he will make a statement on the matter.
Other Questions. - School Attendance.
I am informed by the Garda authorities that the information sought is not readily available and could only be obtained by the expenditure of a disproportionate amount of Garda time and resources.
As the Deputy will appreciate, the school attendance service is provided by school attendance committees in certain parts of Dublin, Dún Laoghaire, Cork and Waterford under the responsibility of the local authorities. In the remainder of the country, the service is provided by the Garda Síochána.
As regards school attendance issues generally, the Minister for Education and Science, Deputy Martin, is currently engaged in the preparation of draft legislation to deal with the complex issues involved in school attendance. His objective is to bring heads of proposed legislation to Government in the autumn in order to be in a position to publish draft legislation before the end of the year.
It is important to point out that the number of prosecutions taken against parents of school children who play truant should not necessarily be taken as a measure of the efforts made by Garda in this area. If school attendance can be encouraged by other means then that is the right way to proceed. The prosecution of parents, in certain circumstances, would not necessarily be the right or fair course to follow.
The Minister for Education and Science recently announced an important initiative which will be targeted at eight to 15 year olds who have dropped out, or who are in danger of dropping out of the school system. Suitable projects for funding will be identified by inviting applications for supports from consortia of youth and community organisations in area based partnerships working in collaboration with schools.
Dr. Upton
Does the Minister agree it is outrageous that this type of information is not available, given the seriousness of the issue we are discussing? Would the Minister further agree that truancy is one of the first important signs which clearly indicates that children are at risk and likely to move on into a life of crime?
Is the Minister prepared to take any specific measures to substitute for this system which, I accept, is rather outdated? Something should replace it so that emphasis is placed on the importance of children remaining in school. Parents should be left in no doubt about the significance of this.
I often complained in great frustration about the absence of information when I was in Opposition. One would table certain questions but the information was not readily available. The technology which is being made available to the Garda Síochána at a cost of over £40 million over the coming years, will mean that questions such as Deputy Upton's will receive the answers they deserve. I regret, as much as he does, that I do not have the statistical data which he seeks.
The Government has shown a considerable amount of commitment to children at risk through the establishment of a range of initiatives. A £30 million programme for young people at risk was announced by the Taoiseach on 21 January. The centrepiece of that programme is a young people and service facilities fund to provide £30 million over the next three years for a variety of capital and non-capital projects in disadvantaged areas. This is a significant development which illustrates the Government's commitment in this area.
A Cabinet subcommittee has addressed this matter in an integrated and comprehensive manner. As a result, initiatives are now being taken to address different aspects of these needs. To underline the importance of a co-ordinated approach, the Minister of State, Deputy Fahey, has been appointed both to the Department of Justice, Equality and Law Reform and to the Department of Health and Children.
More is being done now than previously to address the matters which Deputy Upton raised.
(Mayo): The Minister talked about the range of initiatives which are very welcome. We can talk until the cows come home about early intervention and prevention being better than cure. However, although children are legally bound to attend school from the ages of 6 to 15, we do not seem to have any proper follow-up in relation to the number of convictions for nonattendance.
The earlier debate on courts service revealed a manifest lack of hard data on a series of areas in the criminal justice system. Will the Minister ensure that these statistics are obtained, tabulated and made available at the earliest possible date? They go to the heart of dealing with the problem. We must introduce early intervention which is crucial to prevent young people from developing into Fagins.
The Minister should have the statistics for the rest of the country because, while the school attendance officer regime only operates in Dublin and a few selected areas outside the capital, the Garda Síochána are supposed to establish who is not at school and take follow up measures to ensure prosecution.
Unfortunately, even though we are approaching the end of the millennium, it would require a manual search of all Garda stations to provide the reply to Deputy Upton's question. It is a matter of great frustration to me that I cannot provide him with such a reply. It was also a matter of great frustration to me in
Opposition that when I tabled questions I could not elicit a reply from the then Minister. I am hopeful, however, that situation will change with the introduction of modern technology for the Garda Síochána in the coming years.
I accept it is important to make the information available. I know that Deputy Higgins is an educationalist and has more expertise in this area than I do, but I do not accept that simply appointing more school attendance officers and prosecuting more people will solve this problem. The solution to the problems of absenteeism and poor school attendance involves the examination of a range of issues both in primary and secondary schools. The Minister for Education, Deputy Martin, acknowledged in the House some time ago the need for a fundamental review of the approach taken to this extremely important issue. I subscribe to that view.
I am beginning to stray outside my area of responsibility in discussing those matters, but I agree with Deputy Higgins that it is of considerable importance that children should attend school. It is a cause of the gravest concern to see children walking the streets of towns and cities when they should be at school. I hope that a fundamental review will lead to greater school attendance by those who attend infrequently and by others who remain absent.
The Minister may well be right in what he says but he may also be wrong. There is no base line information in relation to making these decisions. That is the difficulty in relation to any policy development regarding truancy. The information is there, it is just a matter of accessing it. Does the Minister recognise that if there is a lack of information in this regard, the great policy development he refers to will not be fully based on accurate information? Prosecuting parents may work effectively for all we know, but we do not know.
Will the Minister undertake to provide information about the policy initiative that has been undertaken by the Department of Education? While he cannot do so in terms of this parliamentary question, will he undertake not to leave it to some future wonderful world where information technology will solve all the problems? He should explore ways and means of acquiring this information to ensure that policy development will be based on something real rather than on opinions alone.
As I have already explained, the difficulty I have is that it would take a disproportionate amount of Garda time——
It might be worth it.
——for the simple reason that there would have to be a manual search. I will undertake to try to compile and assemble the information manually to ensure it is utilised in the formulation of policy.
With regard to the question of whether prosecutions work, I am not suggesting prosecutions should not take place but it would appear that prosecutions alone will not resolve the problem. There is much more involved. I trust this reply is comprehensive.
I will allow Deputy Upton ask a brief, final supplementary question. I should point out to the House that we have spent an hour dealing with six questions and there are 130 questions remaining.
It is not my fault this time.
Dr. Upton
Is the Minister prepared to contact every Garda station asking them to provide the numbers of prosecutions for truancy over the past three or four years? I imagine most sergeants have that figure readily available in relation to their own stations. I would have thought it was a simple matter to collect information.
As I said to Deputy McManus, I will seek to assemble the information from the Garda Síochána.