Two Dublin parents have been fined by a Judge because their children have missed so much school.
One of the boys was absent for over 80 per cent of the school year. The family were described as close to the poverty line.
The children involved in this case range in age from 11 to 15 and were described as bright boys. The court heard one of them missed 145 days out of 167 of the last school year. Another was absent for 110 days and the others for 55 and 52.
Their mother told the court there were various reasons for this including financial constraints and sickness saying the boys suffered from asthma. She also said they didn’t like getting up as it was cold in the morning.
She added she had fought with them when she heard some of them had mitched. The Judge described it as a difficult case but said he could find no reasonable explanation for their absenteeism.
He said the fact that it was cold in the morning was no excuse or explanation and he didn’t have a shred of evidence that they were asthmatic.
He fined the parents €400 each.
