Michael Colreavy (Sligo-North Leitrim, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

I understand the Minister of State's point that the legislation assumes that officers will be cautious when reaching determinations. However, that leaves an over-reliance on the individual officers concerned. What we are enshrining here is something that is contrary to the advice of any child protection agency I know of or any advocate for children's rights. We have always heard it said that we should listen to the voice of children and believe them. This is putting too much of an onus on the individual officers. There is no requirement for an officer to listen to the voice of the child. Of course, parents may try to reduce a person's age in order to have them introduced as minors. However, are we designing legislation on the assumption that people are going to tell lies or in order to make it easy for people who are coming in traumatic circumstances and trying to enter as refugees? Do we not expect that the majority of the people coming will have evidence of dates of birth and will be truthful about them? It seems the Bill flies in the face of what child protection advocates and organisations have been saying for years in this country.

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