Support urged for parents over child discipline

Proposals to firm up the law against slapping children will not go far enough without support for parents struggling with discipling and controlling their offspring, the Children’s Rights Alliance has warned.

The alliance welcomed indications that Children’s Minister James Reilly is going to ask the Cabinet to approve introducing laws that would remove the last remaining defence to slapping a child.

Slapping is a crime under the general Non-Fatal Offences Against the Person Act, 1997, and the Children’s Act, 2001, which makes it an offence to assault or mistreat a child.