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NEW FIGURES SHOW that there were 175 court summons handed to parents whose children were missing too much school last year.
The number of summons has been on the rise since the National Education Welfare Board (now TUSLA) began handing them out in 2006 – last year there were 133 summons, and the number reached a high of 190 in 2011.
Convictions
So far, there have been 39 convictions for parents given the summons – but with 71 cases adjourned and 15 adjourned with leave to re-enter, that number may rise.
Four cases saw parents given the probation act, while 33 were struck out.
Dan O’Shea, regional manager with TUSLA, told TheJournal.ie that they are hopeful that the end of a court process is not a conviction, and instead is that the child returns to education.
If the cases are struck out, generally that is because TUSLA is happy that the child has returned to school.
The 175 summonses were issued in relation to 101 of the 890,000 children in schools in Ireland.
“That is a very small percentage,” said O’Shea. The summonses are given “at the critical end of things”, said O’Shea, when they “deem that parents are unfairly neglecting their children”.
Interventions
The summonses come when TUSLA has tried all other interventions and agencies, at the “end of a fairly protracted process”, he said.
“The focus of late has been to hear the voice of the child,” explained O’Shea. “That would be very dependent on the voice of the individual.”
If TUSLA feels that the parents “could be doing more to ensure their children could attend more regular school”, the first step is that there is a school attendance notice issued.
There were 493 school attendance notices issued in relation to 287 children last year.
These notices put parents on a warning, telling them that if they don’t cause the attendance of their child to improve, they may face proceedings.
The lower numbers in previous years could be because the agency was “finding our feet” and finding its way through the court processes, said O’Shea.
Since then, they “have developed a clear pathway”, said O’Shea. He added that the decision-making process is a collaborative one.
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The amount of hedgehogs and their babies dying because the council are strimming hedgerows is shocking.
Follow The Hedgehog Society. It’s illegal to do it this time of year but sure they do what they want with not a thought for wildlife.
@Deirdre McDonnell: it’s not illegal for them. It’s usually done under the guise of ‘road safety’. However, it is bad management on their behalf. Most of it is not required.
@Deirdre McDonnell: It’s hilarious that we’re now looking to ‘protect’ tiny runs of boundary growth when there’s 1000′s of hectors of ‘potential behind them.
Hopefully people can start treating this lovely island with more respect.
We could start with banning the unnecessary trimming of beautiful grasses and wild flower along our parks and roads. They even do it along the canals now, where there is zero traffic. It results in an ugly mess of dead grass, with not a flower in sight.
My local council doesn’t do that, we have plenty of wildflowers and butterflies and bees. Surprised that they’re so shortsighted. But they’re probably afraid that a homeless person might catch a few hours of sleep there.
Surely noteworthy has it wrong, Ireland is a heaven for flora and fauna…I’d never believe we could be that bad at protecting of wildlife, like its not like we have bait diggers tearing up our SPA SAC mudflats where wading birds get their much needed rest and food, or our dog walkers letting pooches and fluffy off their lead where ground nesting birds breed and raise their vulnerable young….or I fully sure farmer Brown is letting that blacket bog that he raped and pillaged over the last century is letting it replenish…no you must be wrong noteworthy if you think our fine government’s would let this happen..
We could start by holding the OPW to account for REPEATEDLY breaching EU environmental law and burying rivers in concrete and dredging up salmonid waterways all over the country.
Arrogant Pr1cks.
Ah yes, the randomly appointed nature 2000 areas, very popular due the subsidies involved. As per the latest info not always compatible with the climate goals of the EU. Also so random that on side of a land border -Netherlands- everything is done to preserve an area even leading to farms having to close (buy out by government) due to high nitrogen emissions, while on the other side of that border the same land is dug up/ploughed to turn it into very good farm land, with associated farms…
@Lars: yeah man, it’s all a conspiracy.
@Aranthos Faroth: it’s not a conspiracy and conservering nature is very important. Unfortunately the EU once again managed to turn it into a bureaucratic subsidy driven program that doesn’t seem to get the best results for the money invested. The program itself is quite outdated (pre 2000) and should reviewed…
Absolutely not, I’ll be watching the guy that will be watching his washing machine going around, that’s a fantastic watch..
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