Vol. 530 No. 3
266 Ms Shortall asked the Minister for Education and Science if, in view of his decision to exclude victims of child abuse who were pupils in day schools from the proposed compensation tribunal, he will outline the legal advice available to him on the legal responsibilities of his Department in respect of day schools for which it had a regulatory role; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [3528/01]
There were and are significant differences in the regulatory and operational regime applying to industrial and reformatory schools on the one hand and to ordinary schools on the other which have implications for the responsibility of the Minister of the day towards residents or pupils in the schools.
The responsibility of the Minister for Education and Science in respect of reformatory and industrial schools is set down in the Children Act, 1908. Section 45 of the Act provides that the Minister may certify a school as fit for the reception of children following an inspection of the condition and regulation of the school and its overall fitness. That section also provides that every certified school is to be inspected at least once in every year. Section 47 of the Act provides that the Minister may withdraw the certificate of a school. Section 54 provides that rules relating to the management and discipline of a school are subject to the approval of the Minister. It is also the case that the detention of children in the schools was carried out in accordance with statutory requirements. Combined with these statutory provisions is the fact that the institutions concerned controlled all aspects of children's lives 24 hours a day, seven days a week with no reasonable capacity for access to or involvement by parents. There were no such statutory provisions regarding the regulation of ordinary day schools and the schools did not exercise the kind of total control over children's lives as the reformatory and industrial schools.
