asked the Minister for Justice what steps he proposes to take to ensure that there is no avoidable delay in bringing children charged with offences before the court.
Ceisteanna—Questions. Oral Answers. - Child Offenders.
192.
I assume that the question is based on a recommendation in the recent Report of the Committee on Reformatory and Industrial Schools Systems.
That recommendation is, of course, entirely valid but I cannot accept that it implies that avoidable delays are a feature of the present system. The report does not say anything to the effect that they are a feature and I have no evidence that they are such in fact. There may at times be delay but it does not follow that it is avoidable.
I would also point out that while it is desirable, as the report mentions at section 10, paragraph 13, to deal with an offence while it is fresh in the child's mind, and while the committee obviously meant this to apply to the sentencing and not merely to the initial charging, there may very often be a serious conflict between this very desirable objective and the other very desirable objective of not passing sentence without as full an inquiry as possible into the child's background. Moreover, of course, the offender has to be detected first of all and this in itself may take time.