4,228 entries for Historical Context

Specifically, Mazars did not accept the comparisons used by the Christian Brothers in some of their submissions, which sought to compare the costs of a residential institution in Ireland with one in the North or UK because of the different economic and social circumstances and because the capitation system had been abolished in the UK in the 1920s and had been replaced with a block grant system that was not dependent on large numbers of children being committed. It did, however, note that the rate of increase in the two jurisdictions was largely in tandem.

Mazars also believed it was invalid to apply modern childcare standards retrospectively as suggested by the Oblates in their opening statement.

Under the household income per head analysis, Mazars concluded: on average, the industrial school capitation grant was 88 percent of household income per head.14

When compared with unemployment benefit, Mazars concluded: For the 30-year period, the industrial school capitation grant was on average 122 percent of unemployment benefit payments. Therefore, it is reasonable to conclude that the capitation payments were sufficient to support a child as they exceed what was expected to support an adult male.15

Mazars used the Central Statistics Office’s household budget survey covering the 1939–69 period to ascertain expenditure on child maintenance and concluded: This analysis suggests that the weekly capitation was appropriate for its intended purpose as weekly capitation exceeded expenditure incurred per child by a typical household.16

Mazars also noted that the analysis demonstrated economies of scale associated with child maintenance. As the numbers of children in a household increase two things happen: (a) the incremental or marginal cost of that additional child is less than the incremental cost of the maintaining previous child; and (b) this serves to drag the average maintenance cost per child downwards. Unfortunately we do not have data to measure the economies of scale likely to arise in a Reformatory or Industrial School situation.17

Mazars concluded that the capitation grant was sufficient to feed, clothe and accommodate the children in Industrial Schools to a basic but adequate level – no child should have been hungry, cold or neglected.

For many institutions other important factors came in to play. This was particularly true in the case of the larger boys’ schools where farming was a significant benefit to the running costs of the schools. Large farms in schools like Artane, Letterfrack and Daingean were worked on by the boys and allowed these schools to be almost self-sufficient in terms of food and even generated extra income through selling produce.

In addition, it was a consistent complaint even in contemporary documents that industrial training was used as a means of providing for the needs of the institution rather than the needs of the children. The impact of this varied from school to school and as between boys’ and girls’ schools.

Clothing, footwear, food, cooking and property maintenance were provided to the institution by the industrial training provided to the boys.

Clothing, cleaning, cooking and childcare were provided to the school by the industrial training offered to the girls.

In some Sister of Mercy schools such as Goldenbridge, rosary bead making and other industries provided a considerable extra income to the school.

There was evidence from complainants of baking and laundry facilities being made available to the public for profit.

Not all schools had these additional factors but some did. At the very least it might be expected that in schools that had extra resources, the capitation grant would be seen to go further and provide a better standard of care for some children. There was little evidence that this occurred and indeed some of the best physical care was given by schools such as St Joseph’s Kilkenny, which had almost no farming and no outside source of income.

Another significant factor identified by Mazars was the economies of scale that applied to the larger institutions. The Orders argued that the institutions’ fixed costs remained static irrespective of how many children were there. This fact, which was used to ground an application for increased funding when numbers began falling, was also true in reverse. Large institutions should have had the benefit of savings when in periods of full occupancy and yet the evidence pointed to greater deprivations during those periods.