Are we willing to pay the price for child protection?

STAND on any street in the capital this week, ask a passer by what he makes of the new Children Bill, and the response soon becomes fairly predictable.

First of all, he will remember just two elements in it curfews for children, sanctions for parents. And, secondly, he will welcome both measures emphatically, pausing only to curse the politicians for taking so long to get around to something so obvious.

Meanwhile, back among those involved in the care, defence and protection of children, a cautious welcome has been raised for some of the measures in the new Bill. The chances are, however, that the passer by and the coalface worker are talking about completely different aspects of it - the difference being that workers in the child care sector know there is nothing new about curfews and parental sanctions in Irish law.

The existing Children's Act of 1908 already provides for fines, damages or costs to be paid by the parents of offenders. Under the same 88 year old Act (which still allows for a child to be whipped), courts can order a parent to give security for a child's good behaviour.

Judges can even order curfews if they wish and, under the Probation Act of 1907, can attach a whole range of conditions to a probation order.

SO if these options are such a good idea - good enough to be headlined as "new" and "contentious" why are they only rarely exercised? "It's mainly because the financial reality for most of these mothers and fathers means that any money paid over would be coming out of the taxpayers pocket anyway as most are on social welfare," says a barrister Mary Ellen Ring.

Judges know this, obviously, and clearly take it into account she says. "But I wonder has anyone involved in this legislation gone so far as to ask judges why they do not use these powers?"

The answer would probably be that the problem is more intractable than mere containment of trouble makers and punishment for their parents. The Children Bill may be high on aspirations, but will it muster the political will to provide the massive funding and supports vital to its objectives?

Professionals look at past performance and remain unconvinced. Down the years, the increasingly exasperated voices of various District Justices have been raised in defence of children's rights. Last year, a Co Meath court heard there was no place for a 14 year old girl who was "roaming the streets, drinking in public houses, committing crimes and assaulting people."

Justice John Brophy said: "She needs protection, she needs a secure place, but there is nothing I can do. We have here an appalling situation of a young girl who is effectively out of control, arid the State will not even open its door."

The case of a 10 year old boy who was a menace to himself and others and who had been suspended from infants' school at the age of five came before the High Court last year because there was nowhere for him to go. "There have been five years of reports on this child's behaviour and all of them recommend therapeutic treatment within a secure residential setting", said Ms Ring, who was the boy's counsel. Nothing has been done."

In Galway, a judge issuing a bench warrant for the arrest of a 14 year old car thief described as being barely visible over a steering wheel and a serious threat to the public noted that the boy would probably have to be let go because of the authorities' failure to find a place for him.

A POPULAR view of these situations (reflected in the thrust of the Children Bill) is that the parents are totally indifferent, don't care enough to keep their children off the streets, don't care enough to turn up in court, don't care about the havoc wrought by their children. But most professionals would disagree with that to some extent.

Often, the parents themselves have no coping skills, are ill or stressed beyond endurance by the struggle to live. "Many of the parents who come to the courts come in desperation, having done all they can in limited circumstances," says Mary Ellen Ring.

"Indeed, quite often it's the mothers who ask the courts or gardai to put a curfew on the child because they are worried about that child staying out at night. Sometimes, they'll say `I don't want my child to get bail'."

But what of parents who fail to turn up in court? "Sometimes, the mother it's primarily mothers that I deal with - won't come to court because she has already seen the child get bail, has seen nothing being done and she can't control that child because she probably has others who are younger. She has probably already been to the court at some stage, answered the summons that said 10.30 a.m., found the case wasn't dealt with till one o'clock and was then adjourned till two.

By then the younger children were probably due home from school, so she can't come back after lunch. If she does, she may have a child in a pram. There are no child minding facilities in the courts and she will probably have schoolgoing kids hanging around by now as well, seeing all these other kids, hearing everything that is going on, growing familiar with the atmosphere. She probably has to get two buses and has no child minder. Eventually, she just can't take that kind of pressure and maybe she just won't come back after the case has been adjourned a fourth or even a fifth time.

The one unignorable, underlying aspect of juvenile crime is the poverty and deprivation of all kinds that unites the great majority of offenders (and, indeed, many of the victims).

A study of 100 young people attending a service for disadvantaged youth in Dublin - and quoted by the Dail Select Committee on Juvenile Crime - showed that 56 per cent of these children had experienced frequent conflicts and violence in the home; over half had lost a parent; around a third had an alcoholic or drug addicted parent; another third had been abused and nearly a quarter had suffered neglect.

Hardly surprising, then, that when the study was carried out in 1991 over a third had turned to crime and substance abuse; over a quarter were homeless; a fifth confessed that they themselves were physically abusive and eight of the 100 were sexually abusing others.

"The only solution", says Cian O'Tiarnaigh, of the ISPCC, "is prevention. But the results of prevention lie four elections away. What a long time to wait - 20 years - and then maybe watch your work come to fruition while the opposition are in power. Social responsibility isn't only for parents and children.