Brendan Howlin (Wexford, Labour) | Oireachtas source

I am just trying to understand the logic of it. Clearly, the Children Act does not apply to anybody who is over 18. The Minister's base point is, as I understand it, that anomalous category. My contention is that you cannot create a perfect equality between somebody aged under 18 and somebody aged over 18 because one is categorised as a child and the other is not. What the Minister wants to do is give discretion to a child who commits murder and is convicted but not sentenced until the child becomes an adult. You cannot create an "equality" - the Minister keeps using that word. I know it was struck down on the equality provision of Article 40.1 of the Constitution. You cannot create an absolute equality between a child and an adult in sentencing. Hopefully, there are not too many children committing murder. In essence, the Minister is saying we will not have this unique category of children who are convicted and aged out and that in that instance, we will be silent as an Oireachtas in terms of what the appropriate sentence and leave it to common law, which is a sort of generalism. Since 1860, we have always specified in legislation what the sentence for the very serious crime of murder should be. I am not prescribing a particular sentence; I am only prescribing a mechanism to impose a sentence. I have laboured this point as much as I possibly can.

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