Chapter 2 — Finance

Historical background: the capitation grant system

The Department of Education’s Rules and Regulations were clear as to what the minimum standards were. Rule 5 stipulated that the children shall be supplied with neat, comfortable clothing in good repair, suitable to the season of the year, not necessarily uniform either in material or colour.

Rule 6 provided minimum standards for an adequate diet: The Children shall be supplied with plain wholesome food, according to a Scale of Dietary to be drawn up by the Medical Officer of the School and approved by the Inspector. Such food shall be suitable in every aspect for growing children actively employed and supplemented in the case of delicate or physically under-developed children with special food as individual needs require. No substantial alterations in the Dietary shall be made without previous notice to the Inspector. A copy of the Dietary shall be given to the Cook and a further copy kept in the Manager’s Office.

It was the responsibility of the Department to ensure adequate finance for these minimum standards of care, and it was the responsibility of the Resident Manager to ensure they were maintained. From time to time tensions arose because one or other failed in its obligations: the Department could let funding become inadequate or the Resident Manager could allow basic living conditions to fall below the standards set by the rules.

During the period under investigation, this argument about funding was constant, and for the most part the Department sided with the Resident Managers. An internal Education Department memorandum to the Minister in 1967 wrote that it was ‘in no position to defend its achievement as far as the size of grant goes’.1

A central figure in this argument was the Department’s medical inspector, whose role included ensuring that basic conditions such as food and clothing and living conditions were appropriate to promote general health. In many instances she accused the school of negligent mismanagement of the funds, but she could also take the side of the Resident Manager and argue that funding was inadequate to meet basic needs.

The fundamental question, whether the State fulfilled its obligations under law to provide the basic needs of children in care, is not an easy one, and perhaps no definitive answer is possible.

The Investigation Committee engaged expert assistance from Mazars, Financial Consultants. Mazars examined the available financial records of four separate institutions and they also addressed the general question of whether the capitation payments down through the years were adequate to enable the institutions to provide for the children who were detained in them. The Mazars report and submissions in response are considered later and are annexed to this chapter.

The basic cost of keeping a child in an industrial school

The Cussen Report2 outlined the problems of estimating the cost of keeping a child in an Industrial or Reformatory School: It is difficult to arrive at a figure which would reasonably represent the average yearly cost of maintenance per child in the schools. This is due in the main to differences of circumstances existing as between the various schools; many have farms which produce a very substantial proportion of their food requirements, while others with small or no farms are forced to purchase such supplies either partly or wholly in the open market. In addition variations in the cost of materials for the workshops, clothing, bedding bootmaking, etc, have to be considered. According to figures furnished to us for the year 1933, the cost per head per annum for food varied in the Senior Boys’ Industrial Schools from £7 1s 2d to £20; for wearing apparel from £2 6s. 4d to £6 1s., and for medical expenses from 11s 7d to £2. In the Junior Boys’ Industrial Schools; food varied from £10 10s. to £15 4s 2d. per head per annum; wearing apparel from £2 8s. 7d to £4 11s 9d., and medical expenses from 3s. 5d to £1 8s. In the Girls’ Industrial Schools food varied from £9 8s. to £26 per head per annum, wearing apparel from £1 2s. 3d. to £11, and medical expenses from 3s. 11d. to £7. Corresponding figures from the Reformatories were: Boys’ School, food £30 per head per annum; wearing apparel, £8 16s. and medical expenses, £1. In the Girls’ Reformatories the figures were: food £14; wearing apparel, £6; and medical expenses £2 10s. The disparities in cost as shown are probably due also in some measure to a lack of uniformity in the methods of cost accounting adopted, as the diet in the schools are substantially the same, and the fact that a greater proportion of foodstuffs has to be purchased in some schools as compared with others would hardly explain the marked differences in the cost of maintenance indicated by the figures obtained from the schools. We are, however, satisfied, as a result of our inquiries, that the schools are very economically managed, supplies being obtained where possible by contract or on equally favourable terms.

The same question was raised in a letter by Mr Breathnach of the Department of Finance in 1957-58. He wrote: There is another aspect of the question which puzzles us – the wide range of expenditure on various items by the schools, e.g. Item Cost per head Food £25.8 - £54.6 a year Fuel and light £4.3 - £15 a year Clothing £5.4 - £20.3 a year Salaries £11.3 - £40 a year Do you know why it should cost £2.1s a week to keep each of 117 inmates in St. Lawrence, Sligo, while the cost of keeping 120 at Clifden, Co Galway, should be only about £1.11 s? It would be helpful if your Department could explain the disparity.

The Department of Education attempted to gain information to establish the basic cost of keeping a child in an Industrial School by requesting detailed accounts. These requests were made in the following years: 1945 21 schools out of 52 responded 1947 statement of income and expenditure was received from all industrial schools 1950 42 industrial schools and one reformatory school provided statements 1954 nine schools provided accounts. 1955 The Resident Managers’ Association provided accounts for 22 schools 1962 The Department requested accounts from six representative schools. Nine schools provided statements. 1964 The Resident Managers Association provided a summary of the financial situation of 21 schools to support their application for an increase in the rate of the grant.

The request for accounts in 1945

Despite the Department’s general recognition that the Industrial Schools were underfunded, they were at times sceptical about the claims being made by the Resident Managers.

For example, a deputation from the Resident Managers’ Association went to see the Minister for Education on 10th July 1945 to request an increase in the capitation grant, the payment of salaries to literary teachers and the application of medical and dental services to Industrial Schools. The Minister told the deputation that if statements of accounts, preferably audited, were submitted they would be examined by the Department with a view to submitting them to the Department of Finance. He stressed that a convincing case would have to be made for an increase in the capitation grant.

Only 21 Industrial Schools submitted statements and, of these, just five were ‘stated to have been prepared by accountants and/or auditors’. They were Rathdrum Junior Boys’ School, Goldenbridge, Westport, New Ross, and Wexford.

Three of the 10 senior boys’ Industrial Schools submitted statements prepared by the Orders. They were Greenmount, Upton and Ferryhouse.

Four Industrial Schools for junior boys submitted statements: Passage West, Kilkenny, Drogheda and Rathdrum.