THE Department of Education, has rejected criticism by the Irish Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children (ISPCC) of its handling of allegations of abuse made against teachers.
The ISPCC had accused the Department of "ambivalence and confusion" by brokering complaints through its own inquiries rather than referring allegations to the Garda or the health boards. It was commenting after the Department reinstated a vocational school teacher who was the subject of allegations.
However, a Department spokesman said yesterday that in the case concerned the allegations had been dealt with by the civil authorities and the matter only came to the Department "in the last analysis".