Helen McEntee (Meath East, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I thank the Deputy. I acknowledge and thank him and the members of the committee for waiving pre-legislative scrutiny and acknowledging this is very specific and very much responding to the High Court ruling and the need to ensure equality between children and children who have aged out when it comes to the sentencing and the timeline.

There are two elements to the amendment. The first is imposing a sentence as it considers appropriate, and the advice I have clearly outlined is that is already open to the court to apply to a child a sentence it deems appropriate. That is already there.

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