Michael McDowell (Dublin South East, Progressive Democrats)

The practice. I would be loathe to incorporate that into law without thinking about it very carefully. The current practice allows flexibility and where facts are not really in dispute, there is no need to have primary evidence consisting of defence lawyers stating their client is a certain age, his family is a certain size or his employment history is this way or that. If this was strictly applied, the employer would be required, along with birth certificates and other items, although they may not be at issue in the case.

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