Richard Boyd Barrett (Dún Laoghaire, People Before Profit Alliance) | Oireachtas source

This amendment is essential if we are to protect the rights of children.

The Government is committed to Children First. The idea that children would be wrongly assessed as adults is completely unacceptable and, therefore, any self-declaration by children that they are children should be accepted unless there is evidence to the contrary. The word of the children should be accepted unless there is a reason to believe otherwise, and documentary evidence or other evidence should be looked at if there is any reason to believe it is not the case that someone is a child. However, in the first instance, we should accept the word of the child.

See this speech in context