Trevor Ó Clochartaigh (Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

Amendment No. 23 is in page 18, lines 24 to 25, to delete the words “taking responsibility for the care and protection" and, following the word "years" to insert “the parent or legal or customary caregiver”. The rationale for the amendment is that as it stands there is a lack of clarity in the Bill on whether a minor is deemed accompanied or unaccompanied. In law and international best practice, a child is either accompanied by a parent or guardian or is an unaccompanied or separated child. Sections 14 and 15 of the Bill make reference to a responsible adult which is not defined and does not accord with Irish law, unlike the term "guardian".

Under section 15, this responsible adult has extensive powers enabling him or her to make an application for international protection on behalf of a potentially unaccompanied or separated child, including the power to consent to a medical examination of a child without his or her relationship to the child having been established. The adult could be a friend, brother, sister or, equally, the child's trafficker. That is why we have serious concerns.