The Gazette 1967/71

on "Juvenile Delinquency and the Probation System". He emphasised the value of the 1962 English Morison Report, and dealt specifically with Probation Case Work, Methods of Super vision, and Recruitment and Training of Probation Officers; he also stressed that, in the right con ditions, probation was much preferable to a prison sentence. The Probation Officer must needs be a dedicated social worker. Mr. Thomas Fitzpatrick, T.D., put forward as a case for review of the probation system the fact that within seven years the number of young offenders entrusted to Probation Officers in the Dublin Metropolitan Area increased from 96 in 1962 to 668 in 1968, and still there were only six officers in the area and none anywhere outside it. Mr. Fitzpatrick suggested that the Probation of Offenders Act should be drastically improved by: 1. Expanding the area of jurisdiction of the Dublin Metropolitan Area Children's Court to suburban and highly populated areas. 2. Dispensing with the system of trying child ren in District Courts. 3. The establishment of a proper up-to-date national probation system. 4. The appointment of trained Probation Officers in the provinces, with possibly one to every two counties. Mr. Fitzpatrick pointed out that the Minister for Justice set up a commission into the matter of probation in 1962 and suggested that a Minis terial Order setting up children's courts in Dublin suburbs should be made. He also suggested that Ireland should have a prisoner's aid system, stating: "There ; s a most unchristian approach to a young person who has been convicted in our courts or served even a short sentence. The largest employers of labour in the country are the State and Local Authorities and I think they should lead the way by em ploying such young people and give them a real chance to become useful citizens in their own country. District Justice O hUaidhaigh said that the majority of children who appeared in the juvenile court were appearing as a result of wilful neglect by their parents, who showed a complete lack of interest in and control of their children. From his experience of the juvenile courts he had come

to the conclusion that in the case of most of what were now called juvenile delinquents the parents themselves were mainly to blame. The first thing the majority of these parents asked for when they appeared in court with their child was a psychiatric report, assuming that their children were mentally defective. Judging by the quantity of such demands, he said, one would imagine that Dublin was a city of lunatic children. He said that one of the reasons for the shortage of probation officers was that the bureaucrats had taken over the probation service. Like the Abominable Snowman you didn't see the bureau crat, you just saw the tracks he left. Justice O hUaidhaigh said that there were six probation officers trying to cope with over 700 children and that it was a worthless exercise. Mr. Niall Osborough, Lecturer in Law, Univer sity College also spoke. The President, Mr. James Greene, presided. SOLICITORS' COSTS AND INFLATION DISCOUNTED CASH FLOW The term "discounted cash flow" is one that seldom if ever appears in solicitors' audited accounts but which has a recurring familiarity in the annual reports of their clients who are limited companies. The unfamiliarity with which the term is regarded by solicitors is a further indication of the attention which they devote to their clients' affairs, sometimes at the cost of their own interests. It is a well-known fact that the costs which a solicitor receives in a long drawn-out transaction seldom accrue or are received until the work is finished. If a commercial firm takes on work that would take three or four years to complete and at the end of that period will receive a sum of say £1,000 from the customer, the question is what is that amount really worth when the over heads incurred year by year are deducted and in addition there is deducted the cost of financing these overheads and the fact that £1,000 received in four years' time is worth considerably less than £1,000 now in terms of real value or purchasing power if allowance is made for inflation at a compound rate per annum. This is a problem that faces a solicitor. A transaction or the kind men tioned might be unprofitable or might produce a