Ruairi Quinn (Dublin South East, Labour)
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Question 284: To ask the Minister for Justice, Equality and Law Reform if he will rescind the arrest warrant for a person (details supplied) who escaped from an industrial school; if not, if he will acknowledge that they were wrongly and unjustly imprisoned to begin with; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [24513/09]

Dermot Ahern (Louth, Fianna Fail)
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The majority of children committed to industrial schools were committed by the District Court under section 58(1) of the Children Act 1908. I should emphasise that this was not a criminal procedure. The provision allowed any person to bring a child before the District Court to have that child committed to an industrial school on the basis that the child was found begging, was homeless, had parents who did not exercise proper care, was destitute or was associating with criminals or prostitutes. In practice, the applications for such committals were most frequently made by the ISPCC, the Gardaí, school attendance officers, the Society of St. Vincent de Paul, parish priests etc. The report of the Ryan Commission has clearly identified the abuses that arose from the system of detaining children in industrial schools and its findings have been fully accepted by all members of the Government, including myself but also the Minister for Education and Science and the Minister for Health and Children.

I as Minister have no power to overturn decisions or orders of a court nor can I intervene in any criminal proceedings. There are procedures in place to allow decisions of courts to be appealed or judicially reviewed.

Based on the information provided I have no knowledge of any arrest warrant for the individual in question. However, if the Deputy can provide me with any further information I will make further enquiries and provide as much assistance as possible. I should explain that the procedure for returning a child who fled from a certified industrial school that was provided for under section 72(2) of the 1908 Act did not involve the issue of any type of arrest warrant. I would also point out that the provisions of the Children Act 1908 were repealed by the Children Act 2001.