Caoimhghín Ó Caoláin (Cavan-Monaghan, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

I do not intend to argue against the Minister's position, but I could offer her a sustained argument against it. It is open to interpretation. Who will determine the views of the child? If there is no consultation, where will the views of the child be taken into account? How will they be accessed? Where will its genesis be? If the Minister takes away the consultation, and she was not prepared to accept amendment No. 17, perhaps she would explain how the views of the child will be ascertained. I am not going to oppose her amendment but I wonder which lobby argued for it because we all engaged with the NGOs, a variety of individual interests and our own research, and it was not run past me. I am asking the Minister to explain how the views of the child will be obtained if she is to remove even the notion of engaging in consultation.