TWO reformatory schools Oberstown Boys' Centre and Trinity House, sufficiently complied with the requirements relating to Roman Catholic detainees and were conducted in accordance with the doctrines of that church, the Supreme Court ruled yesterday.
Mr Justice Keane, reading the judgment, said a boy came before the district judge in the Children's Court in Dublin in April 1995 on a charge of burglary to which he pleaded guilty.
He was then 15 years of age.
The district judge concluded that his only option was to send him to either Oberstown Boys' Centre or Trinity House, the only reformatories for male juvenile offenders which had been certified by the Minister for Education under the relevant legislation.
The district judge, however, believed neither of those institutions was conducted in accordance with the doctrines of the Roman Catholic Church within the meaning of the Children's Act 1908.
Since the boy was deemed to be Roman Catholic, the judge could not send him to either institution.
The Minister for Education's solicitor requested the district judge to state a case for the opinion of the High Court.
The High Court ruled that the institutions did not comply with the requirements of the Act regarding the Roman Catholic religion. The Minister appealed this decision to the Supreme Court.
Yesterday Mr Justice Keane said St Joseph's Industrial School, Clonmel, was the only school of this type run by a religious order.
The boy had been asked to leave that institution.
Trinity House, Oberstown Boys' Centre and Oberstown Girls' Centre were on the same campus. There were 75 pupils in the three schools and one full time chaplain who was a member of the Salesian order.
He celebrated Mass in Trinity House every weekend, attendance at which was compulsory for Roman Catholic detainees.
He spent about one third of his 40 hour working week in Trinity House and the rest of his time in the other schools.
The chaplain participated in class and group activity and was available for private consultation with any pupil who required it. He was also responsible for the instruction of any boy who had not yet been confirmed.
The judge said that in a case of a certified school such as Trinity House all the facts indicated that it was exclusively intended for detainees of the Roman Catholic faith and had the services of a chaplain. Mass was compulsory at weekends, and the religious representative on the board was a nominee of the Roman Catholic Archbishop of Dublin.
It therefore could not reasonably be said that the absence of a particular form of structured religious instruction deprived the school of the character of one conducted in accordance with the doctrines of the Roman Catholic Church.