‘Threat of jail for truancy means State has failed’

PARENTS’ representatives have said they believe State systems have failed if the threat of jail is held over parents who do not send their children to school.

The National Parents Council-Primary was responding to news — reported by the Irish Examiner yesterday — that warrants have been issued against eight Co Limerick parents who face 40-day sentences in prison for not paying court fines.

They were among 10 parents of five children brought before Rathkeale District Court last July by the National Educational Welfare Board for not keeping their children at school. NPC-P spokesman Philip Mudge said that sending a parent to jail is never the answer because it will not send a child back to school.