4,228 entries for Finance

One of inspectors of boarded out children134 in the Department of Health, Miss Clandillon135, in her review of the Tuairim report, although claiming that the report reflected some ‘muddled and out-moded thinking’ was broadly positive stating that: there are some sound recommendations in the Report. Everyone concerned with the welfare of deprived children would agree with the view that a new Children Act should supersede the present fragmented legislation and widen its scope.136

The Commission of Inquiry on Mental Illness, published the same year as the Tuairim Report, recommended that ‘that the whole problem of industrial schools should be examined’ and regarded the ‘term industrial as applied to these schools, as obsolete and objectionable’.137 In the same year a series of articles appeared in the Irish Times, written by Michael Viney. He argued in the articles: (a) That most juvenile offences in the Republic are rooted in social conditions: urban poverty and overcrowding, deprivation and inadequate family welfare; (b) that the children’s courts have lost faith in an out-dated and money-starved system of institutional care; (c) that probation, as an alternative has been emasculated by lack of training, lack of staff and overwork; (d) that in the piecemeal partnership between two Government departments and a variety of religious orders and agencies, proper liaison and aftercare is virtually unknown; (e) That vital psychological and psychiatric aspects of the juvenile problem are getting only token attention.138

On 11th November 1966, Dr CE Lysaght submitted a report on Industrial Schools and Reformatories to the Minister for Education, Mr Donagh O’Malley. Commissioned by Mr George Colley, the previous Minister for Education. Dr Lysaght outlined that: his personal instruction by word of mouth was not to confine myself to the purely medical and physical condition of the children but to go into and report on their environmental conditions which have a direct or indirect effect on their well-being and health, physical and mental.

In his general report, he outlined that: the most striking feature is of course the diminishing numbers in the schools over recent years which has resulted in the closing of many schools already. Manifestly this downward trend will result in the closure of more. An unfortunate result of this downward trend is the creation of uncertainty as to the future of the schools and consequent hesitation on the part of religious orders to undertake works of improvements involving any notable expenditure.

Despite questioning the managers as to the reasons underlying the decline in numbers, Dr Lysaght claimed that he could obtain no conclusive result and that it seemed the result of a number of factors. He went on to state: Legal adoption has been given as a cause but all agreed the numbers involved could not account for the marked fall. Another reason given and also accepted as welcome was increased earnings and consequent increased standard of living among the poorer classes. Emigration of whole families of the poorer class to Great Britain was also considered a factor. The boarding out of children by Local Authorities was also mentioned. Nobody appears in a position to indicate its extent in their area but many considered its worth had been greatly exaggerated and were critical as regards boarded out children they had received in their schools....In many schools, Managers and nuns were cynical as regards Local Authorities and said their officials would prefer to send children to any sort of home rather than to the industrial schools and in fact had taken children from industrial schools without assigning any reason and placed them in homes. ...There were also statements made that some District Judges, no matter how bad the circumstances, would not commit children to these schools and they had a wrong conception of them. On inquiry I found that in only very few instances had District Judges visited these schools. It would seem therefore their knowledge of them was obtained second-hand and is hearsay which they would not themselves accept in Court as evidence.

The other striking feature observed by Dr Lysaght was: the marked difference between the schools for girls operated by nuns and those for senior boys under the care of brothers. The former are without exception much superior in every way and beyond explanation by way of smaller numbers. The vast majority of girls’ schools are most satisfactory and in many cases can compare favourably in regard to care and comfort with not only the ordinary run of boarding schools for girls but with the most exclusive ones. The provision in these schools reflects great credit on the religious orders concerned. The same however cannot be said of the Senior Boys’ Schools which are in the main rough and ready. The absence of a woman’s hand was notable in many of them.

An issue raised by the Managers with Lysaght was that of keeping children for an extra year, particularly in light of proposals to raise the school leaving age. In particular he stated that the Managers favoured the proposal ‘especially in the case of illegitimate children with nobody to care for them, that they were too young to send out into the world at 16’. He went to say that he favoured such an extension and that ‘the army would seem a most suitable starting career for boys without relatives or friends. I understand the army will not take recruits until 18 years; this training and way of life is not open to boys until they wait two years after leaving school, by which time the world outside has made or broken them.’ He also observed that: a certain number of coloured children were seen in several schools. Their future especially in the case of girls presents a problem difficult of any satisfactory solution. Their prospects of marriage in this country are practically nil and their future happiness and welfare can only be assured in a country with a fair multi-racial population, since they are not well received by either ‘black or white’. The result is that these girls on leaving the schools mostly go to large city centres in Great Britain. They are at a disadvantage also in relation to adoption and, as they grow up, in regard to ‘god-parents’ and being brought on holidays. It was quite apparent that the nuns give special attention to these unfortunate children, who are frequently found hot-tempered and difficult to control. The coloured boys do not present quite the same problem. It would seem that they also got special attention and that they were popular with the other boys.

In addition to the report by Lysaght, the Department of Education received a detailed memo from the Association of Resident Managers of Reformatory and Industrial Schools on 24th January 1967. In the memo the Managers highlighted the decline in the number of children and the closure of a number of schools in the previous year. In addition, they highlighted a number of further issues, including the unsatisfactory operation of the School Attendance Act, the lack of adequate funding for aftercare and the need for additional psychologists and psychiatrists. A further issue raised was the number of ‘pupils who are retarded and should not be in these schools’.139 The memo argued that such children place ‘a heavy burden on managers and staffs and then there is the added difficulty of finding suitable employment for those pupils at sixteen years of age. There should be a Special School for such pupils for they are a handicap to the other children and being unable to keep up with the class, their education tends to become worse.’

However, the core issue highlighted was the alleged inadequacy of the capitation grant and they concluded by stating: all the Industrial Schools are heavily in debt and that without immediate and substantial aid they will not be able to continue to do the work for which they were established. The question of closing the schools is under serious consideration by the managers because they are unhappy about the system. The Court approach is obsolete. The managers are painfully aware of the defects that exist due to the system. They would be more than willing to remove these defects but are not in a position to do so owing to the inadequate maintenance grant. The managers know the claim the schools have on just judgment and just action. They trust that their labours will procure for them the support they desire in the work for the more helpless of the Irish people. They calculate that a maintenance grant of £8 per week is needed now, so that outstanding debts may be liquidated and the schools brought up to-date in every way. We are chiefly concerned that further development should preserve which is valuable in existing practice and that any administrative change should above all be workable.

The Managers then outlined 16 specific recommendations. They were: 1.As the term ‘Industrial School’ no longer applies to some of our institutions, since we do not admit children who infringe socially, a more appropriate name should be applied to these schools. 2.Children from broken homes, or whose parents are ill, should not have to appear before the Children’s Court to be committed. If children are not committed it is impossible to obtain maintenance from County Councils. 3.As some of our children are backward when admitted classes in these schools should be small – 20 children per teacher so that individual attention could be given. 4.Supervisors and domestic staff should be paid by the health authority. Training courses for Supervisors are necessary. Personal salary for all lay members of the staff. 5.All public criticisms to be investigated and corrected by the Department. 6.Would suggest that Letterfrack should be under the jurisdiction of the Department of Justice and not under Education as at present. 7.When children are being transferred from an Industrial School to a Reformatory School at the age of 15 years or thereabouts, we think they should get an extension of time because it is impossible to do anything in 12 months or sometimes less. 8.That the rule regarding the length of time children may be away on holidays be relaxed and that the manager of each school be allowed to determine the number of days the children may remain out. 9.The discharge of committed children be given serious consideration, because there are many instances where children were discharged and the home conditions were very bad. 10.Children should be maintained until they reach at least 18 years of age or until they can do their Leaving Cert. examination if they so wish, or children learning trades be maintained until they have their time served. 11.Maintenance grant to be based on an average number of pupils. 12.Method of paying grants be radically changed. Would suggest that grants be paid every three months by Co. Councils and not every six months as at present. 13.Clarification of Health Act in regard to Industrial Schools. 14.Remission of rates on Industrial Schools. 15.Grants towards buildings and repairs should be made available. 16.That a statement on Government Policy towards Industrial Schools would be welcomed by Resident managers before next meeting at Easter.

By the early 1960s, the number of full-time officers in Dublin was five with a caseload of less than 250. As a consequence of the lack of work, one probation officer was seconded to the adoption board, a practice that continued over the years. In 1964 it was agreed to establish the post of Probation Administration Officer and to employ six full-time staff, two male and two female to be attached to the Children’s Court and one male and one female to the adult Custody Court at Chancery Street, with each officer having a caseload of 65 persons at any one time. Officers were expected to be ‘well-educated, have satisfactory experience in social work and otherwise possess the requisite knowledge and ability and be suitable to discharge the duties of the post of probation officer’ and a qualification in social science was desirable, but not essential. As late as 1968, no full-time probation officers were employed outside of Dublin. In January 1969 a review of the Probation and After-care Service was conducted by Mr Mac Conchradha140, who was also a member of the Committee of Enquiry into Reformatory and Industrial Schools’ Systems, being an appointee of the Minister for Justice.141 Mr Mac Conchradha, in his report dated 14th July 1969, concluded: ‘For all practical purposes, probation operates only in the Juvenile Court in the Dublin Metropolitan District. Five officers – two men and three women are attached to this court at Dublin Castle. They had approximately 600 cases during 1968.’142 He noted that one of the reasons for the absence of the widespread use of probation was: Strange as it may appear, District Justices generally (and most likely the Judges also) do not seem to have adverted to the potentialities of probation. This was both my own impression and the opinion expressed of their colleagues by the few justices that are ‘probation minded’. It was often clear that invoking probation scarcely crossed their minds, although the virtual non-existence of a service was accountable to some extent for this. By and large, Justices were committed to the very conservative view, that probation, while not so specifically so limited in law, has in practice been considered valid for the very early offender amenable to supervision and ordinarily is indicated for juveniles only.143

Mr Mac Conchradha concluded that the ‘Juvenile Court in Dublin Castle requires attention urgently.’ Noting that approximately 300 juveniles were placed on probation each year, the relatively low number in part being explained by the ‘Justice’s feeling that the existing probation staff could not cope with any more’, but also by his view that ‘what is certain is that there has been no liberal or experimental use of probation. Consequently it cannot be excluded that there would not be greater recourse to probation if more officers were available.’144 Mr Mac Conchradha also provided background information of the emergence of pre-trial and pre-decision reports in relation to juveniles and the implementation of this practice prior to the publication of the Committee of Enquiry into Reformatory and Industrial Schools’ Systems. He outlined: For some years past, there has been an international trend for courts to have a social enquiry made about offenders, before passing sentence. In Britain, this has been the practice with young persons and with all first committals to prisons. The practice commended itself to Justice Kennedy. I surmise that her views crystallised from the sessions of the Committee for Industrial and Reformatory Schools – of which she is the Chairman and I am the Minister’s nominee. The Committee discussed at length this matter of a court’s decision, in cases involving the prosecution of young people or their committal to care, being informed by their history and environment. The Committee’s favouring of this idea was supported by what they saw in Britain and throughout the Continent. Justice Kennedy introduced the procedure into the Juvenile Court in June 1968 and, in the case of every juvenile coming for the first time before the Court (1) on charge or (2) as liable to committal as being in need of care, remanded the case to enable the probation officers to carry out a pre-trial social enquiry. There was simply not the staff to undertake this additional work. For ten months, the existing five officers have virtually done nothing else but prepare pre-trial reports. Contacts with and supervision of their probationers became irregular, were mostly confined to urgent matters or to instances where there was an untoward development and were superficial apart from this. Recently, while Justice Kennedy was ill, some of her colleagues, while supplying in the Juvenile Court, adverted to the practice and advised her that it was objectionable to have these reports compiled in advance of the hearing and that they should properly be prepared only when the court had reached a conclusion on the issue before it but in advance of deciding the outcome. Justice Kennedy discontinued pre-trial reports in April 1969. She intended to introduce pre-decision reports there and then but, as the supervision of probationers had previously been so adversely affected in the existing staffing situation, she deferred the matter. The practice of having a pre-decision report prepared for the information of the court is fundamentally sound and is supported by what has transpired abroad. It is most likely that the Committee on Industrial and Reformatory Schools will recommend social inquiry, psychological assessment and medical psychiatric investigation, as a pre-requisite to the committal of young persons in need of care or for delinquency. This is now standard international practice and is something which Justice Kennedy will want to do, apart from all that, it would be a desirable advance and provision should be made for it.145

The report recommended that the service be expanded, a new central headquarters provided in Dublin and the recruitment of a substantial number of additional probation officers, prison welfare officers and clerical staff.

A total of 493 witnesses were interviewed by members of the Investigation Committee’s legal team. These interviews covered over 150 Industrial Schools, Reformatories, special schools, residential homes, national schools, secondary schools, hospital and other childcare facilities. Some of the institutions were cited by only one or two witnesses. The material catalogued here consisted of uncorroborated allegations that were unchallenged and unproven and therefore did not have probative value in yielding conclusions about any institution or event. The interviews do, nevertheless, demonstrate the range of abuse complained of in such institutions and the circumstances in which it can arise and are a reference for identifying weaknesses in the systems and indicating areas needing diligence and possibly reform.

Interviews are summarised in the following categories: Boys Industrial Schools and Reformatories Girls Industrial Schools and Reformatories Orphanages Hospitals Special schools and schools for the deaf National schools Other childcare facilities.