Gino Kenny (Dublin Mid West, People Before Profit Alliance) | Oireachtas source

The child could say and has the capacity to say that he or she does not want to seek treatment.

Obviously, the best interests of the child, medically and legally, would then be for him or her to be involuntarily detained to seek treatment. It is quite a complex issue.

I have a final question on children aged between 16 and 18 years. Assisted capacity essentially means a person of an age can make an independent decision regarding his or her own health, and so forth. That is probably not the best definition but that is what I have come up with. On children aged between 16 and 18 years, what is the determination about a child who is maybe in the throes of a pretty dire mental health situation and absconds or says he or she does not want treatment? The child could be in a situation where he or she is very traumatised. What happens in that situation, especially for that age group of young people? Again, we come back to the point of the best interests of the child. In circumstances, does that apply to that age group, namely, those aged under 16 years?