Child misses 87% of school days

A Dublin couple has been spared jail for failing to ensure their children went to school, with one missing 87% of days in one year.

Following a two-day hearing at Dublin District Court, Judge John O’Neill convicted the mother and father of breaching the Education and Welfare Act, and he fined them €400 each.

He said the parents, who claimed their children were sick, had been unable to justify or produce evidence as to why their children, aged from 11 to 15, had been missing from school.