Billy Kelleher (Cork North Central, Fianna Fail)

While I do not support this amendment, in the context of a child's age and understanding and in the context of language difficulties, for example children who may not have English as their first language, is there an obligation when assessing children to assess their understanding of what is happening? If there are language difficulties, is there an obligation on the authorities to assess the child's understanding? We could, for example, have a situation where a child has no understanding of what is happening because of language barriers or a situation where the HSE or other authorities might ignore that. Is there any obligation in the Bill to take this into consideration?

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