Playground fall claims outrageous, says Hanafin

Minister for Education Mary Hanafin has said it was outrageous for parents to lodge compensation claims against schools in cases where children fell in the playground.

She also said last night it was "ludicrous" that some schools were introducing no-running policies in the playground due to fear of litigation.

"Children will run, children will fall and children will hurt themselves," she said.

Ms Hanafin said parents would have to realise that if their child ran in the playground and fell it was not always somebody else's fault.

She said for parents to believe that somebody else was to blame when their child fell and then to seek compensation was "outrageous".

Last week at the launch of a Government plan to prevent obesity in children, Taoiseach Bertie Ahern also expressed concern that in some school playgrounds children were not allowed to run "for fear of litigation in the event of a fall".

Mr Ahern said the introduction of such a ban in some schools was "nothing short of shocking".

Speaking on the RTÉ Week in Politics programme last night, Ms Hanafin said children only spent 20 per cent of their time in school and the educational system alone was not going to solve the problem of childhood obesity.

However she said physical education halls were being incorporated into all new schools being built, or where major extensions were being constructed. Joe Higgins TD, of the Socialist Party, said it was "outlandish" that parents were initiating litigation over falls in the playground. However he claimed that the comments by the Taoiseach were "a diversionary tactic" to take away from the lack of investment in sports facilities and gymnasia where children could go a couple of times per week.

Fine Gael's Finance spokesman Richard Bruton TD said the playground issue was just a small part of a much bigger picture in dealing with the problem of childhood obesity.

The report of the National Taskforce on Obesity, which was launched last week, estimated that 300,000 Irish children were overweight. The Taoiseach said the cost of treating obesity and related illnesses was now close to €500 million per year.