Ms Lorna Kavanagh:

I will give an example of a case. We do not hang our procedures on individual cases. We often have young people who present and state their age as 15. Later, at the point where they are making their international protection application, they will tell us they are not 15. They might be 17. However, they have been told by the agent or smuggler who brought them in to say they are 15. We have to try to build trust with young people to ensure that even though they are still a minor, if they are not 15 but 17, they need to be clear about that for their international protection application. I understand that the young lady in this case is saying she is 15. We would have to assess her as a minor. We do not do medicals, so the two-year age gap does not come into play.