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on "Juvenile Delinquency and
the Probation
System". He emphasised the value of the 1962
English Morison Report, and dealt specifically
with Probation Case Work, Methods of Super
vision, and Recruitment and Training of Probation
Officers; he also stressed that, in the right con
ditions, probation was much preferable
to a
prison sentence. The Probation Officer must needs
be a dedicated social worker.
Mr. Thomas Fitzpatrick, T.D., put forward as
a case for review of the probation system the
fact
that within
seven years
the number of
young offenders entrusted to Probation Officers
in the Dublin Metropolitan Area increased from
96 in 1962 to 668 in 1968, and still there were
only six officers in the area and none anywhere
outside it.
Mr. Fitzpatrick suggested that the
Probation of Offenders Act should be drastically
improved by:
1.
Expanding the area of jurisdiction of the
Dublin Metropolitan Area Children's Court
to suburban and highly populated areas.
2. Dispensing with the system of trying child
ren in District Courts.
3. The establishment of a proper up-to-date
national probation system.
4.
The
appointment
of
trained Probation
Officers in the provinces, with possibly one
to every two counties.
Mr. Fitzpatrick pointed out that the Minister
for Justice set up a commission into the matter
of probation in 1962 and suggested that a Minis
terial Order setting up children's courts in Dublin
suburbs should be made.
He also suggested that Ireland should have a
prisoner's aid system, stating: "There ; s a most
unchristian approach to a young person who has
been convicted in our courts or served even a
short sentence. The largest employers of labour
in the country are the State and Local Authorities
and I think they should lead the way by em
ploying such young people and give them a real
chance to become useful citizens in their own
country.
District Justice O hUaidhaigh said that the
majority of children who appeared in the juvenile
court were appearing as a result of wilful neglect
by their parents, who showed a complete lack
of interest in and control of their children. From
his experience of the juvenile courts he had come
to the conclusion that in the case of most of
what were now called juvenile delinquents the
parents themselves were mainly to blame.
The first thing the majority of these parents
asked for when they appeared in court with their
child was a psychiatric report, assuming that their
children were mentally defective. Judging by the
quantity of such demands, he said, one would
imagine that Dublin was a city of lunatic children.
He said that one of the reasons for the shortage
of probation officers was that
the bureaucrats
had taken over the probation service. Like the
Abominable Snowman you didn't see the bureau
crat, you just saw the tracks he left.
Justice
O hUaidhaigh said that there were six probation
officers trying to cope with over 700 children and
that it was a worthless exercise.
Mr. Niall Osborough, Lecturer in Law, Univer
sity College also spoke. The President, Mr. James
Greene, presided.
SOLICITORS' COSTS AND INFLATION
DISCOUNTED CASH FLOW
The term "discounted cash flow" is one that
seldom
if
ever appears
in
solicitors' audited
accounts but which has a recurring familiarity in
the annual reports of their clients who are limited
companies. The unfamiliarity with which the term
is regarded by solicitors is a further indication of
the attention which they devote to their clients'
affairs, sometimes at the cost of their own interests.
It is a well-known fact that the costs which a
solicitor receives in a long drawn-out transaction
seldom accrue or are received until the work is
finished. If a commercial firm
takes on work
that would take three or four years to complete
and at the end of that period will receive a sum
of say £1,000 from the customer, the question is
what is that amount really worth when the over
heads incurred year by year are deducted and in
addition there is deducted the cost of financing
these overheads and the fact that £1,000 received
in four years' time is worth considerably less than
£1,000 now in terms of real value or purchasing
power if allowance is made for inflation at a
compound rate per annum. This is a problem that
faces a solicitor. A transaction or the kind men
tioned might be unprofitable or might produce a