Department criticised for not setting date for enactment of Children Bill

There is "no exact date" for enactment of the Children Bill 1999 into law, the Department of Justice has said. The Bill was published almost a year ago amid demands for a legislative response to deal with out-of-control children.

The Labour Party TD, Ms Roisin Shortall, said there was "no sense of urgency" within the Department about the Bill. Although the Taoiseach earlier this year told the Dail he hoped the Bill might be enacted before the summer recess, and while laws extending pub opening hours could be enacted before the Dail rose, the Children Bill remained on the back-burner, she said.

The Government's delay showed the "total lack of a sense of urgency" about tackling juvenile justice issues and underlined children's role as second-class citizens in the Celtic Tiger economy, Ms Shortall said.

She warned that the problem of out-of-control children continued to fester.

A spokesman for the Department of Justice said the Bill is awaiting Committee Stage and the Minister was anxious to have it enacted as quickly as possible. It was a comprehensive piece of legislation and the Department could not indicate when it might be enacted because it could not predict what amendments might be tabled or the rate of its progress at Committee, he added.

Published on October 1st 1999, the Children Bill will replace the Children's Act 1908. The new Bill has 270 sections and runs to 130 pages.

A modern legislative framework to deal with disturbed children has been sought since 1970 when the Kennedy Report recommended new legislation. In 1996, the then Minister for Justice, Mrs Nora Owen, published a Children Bill which went to Second Stage in the Dail before the government fell.

The new Government expressed serious concerns about aspects of the 1996 Bill and three years passed before a new Bill was published.

While there has been a general welcome for the Bill, some aspects have provoked concern.

Ms Cliona Murphy of the Children's Legal Centre said the Bill "is probably one of the most important pieces of legislation in decades" and is expected to structure the State's response to juvenile justice issues for years.

"It's very important that we have a real debate on this Bill and get it right," she said.

Her concerns about the Bill relate to provisions permitting the continuing detention of children in St Patrick's Institution - in breach of the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child.

The Bill also compelled the directors of detention centres to accept children referred to them by the courts - even where there were no places available in the centres, Ms Murphy noted.