Vol. 575 No. 5
167 Mr. O'Shea asked the Minister for Justice, Equality and Law Reform the proposals he has to expunge the conviction and extend a pardon to a person, details supplied, in England; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [28761/03]
I would certainly like to be in a position to act as the person wishes if that would help somehow to ameliorate the hurt that person feels. I cannot, however, act as requested because the question of a pardon only arises in the case of a criminal conviction. In this instance, the proceedings in question related to the placing of a destitute child in care. I fully appreciate the hurt the person in question feels and I would accept that the law at the time was harsh in the manner it treated children deemed to be destitute.
I have had inquiries made in this matter and I have been informed that the person in question – who was less than two years old at the time and deemed to be destitute – was sent to an industrial school in 1935 by order of the District Court pursuant of the Children Act 1908. As the Deputy will appreciate, the courts are, subject only to the Constitution and the law, independent in the exercise of their judicial functions and, therefore, it is not open to me to comment or intervene in any way on how a particular case was conducted or the outcome of any such proceedings.
