Joe O'Reilly (Cavan-Monaghan, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I apologise for the fact that we have been in and out this morning owing to votes in the House and the fact that we have had to meet ICBAN Limited, another cross-Border organisation. I welcome the delegates. It is great to have this exchange of views and to commend and salute their work. President Higgins' recent initiative of regional assemblies of young people culminating in an assembly within Áras an Uachtaráin was hugely successful. What was remarkable at the last session was that the young people advanced a knowledge-based excellent set of proposals. That makes me believe, as Mr. Michael McLoughlin said, that young people should have an input into the constitutional convention. I concur with that view and wish him well. If the committee can help in any way it would be delighted to do so. The question is how to organise the input. Any of the young who spoke at the final session in Áras an Uachtaráin who represented the regions could reasonably make a presentation of great excellence and maturity to the constitutional convention. In fact it might well put some of the adult contributions in the shade. As I had a personal interest in it, I watched the entire proceedings, which were excellent. Linked to that area is Comhairle na nÓg, Dáil na nÓg, about which Deputy Crowe asked if there were similar assemblies in Northern Ireland.

There is great potential in all of these organisations. I have personal experience as I have a teenage son who is involved with Comhairle na nÓg which has been transformational and excellent for him. He has benefited hugely from it. It is very enjoyable for him and his associates. They have a round of social activities related to it as they do active community work.

It is clear to me as a parent and a former teacher and from observation and through constituency work that young people need confidence, that is, inner confidence and self belief. That is how to tackle substance abuse and many of the issues correctly identified by Deputy Ó Ríordáin about the position of young women and the attempt to exploit them commercially. Confidence is a major issue. All of one's activities help to contribute to building confidence which is a major issue. That leads to my last point, that the enemy of confidence is youth unemployment, the crisis with which we are confronted which is at 30% and is a huge challenge to us all. Without wishing to be political, I commend the Minister on job activation and the fact that 10,000 new places are available for community employment, through social employment schemes and so on provided for in the budget. I hope the delegates will tap into that area and have an input into identifying schemes in which young people can be involved and an involvement in the running of youth cafés. For example, a young person on a community employment scheme could assist with the running of a youth café. That has been an issue in some instances. Senator Jim D'Arcy mentioned the huge significance of youth cafés and their attempts to deal with substance abuse, the confidence and so on. There has been an issue in a few places in regard to continuing to run youth cafés. There may be potential within the community employment schemes or the social employment schemes to do something in that regard. I would be interested to hear a comment on that.

My last point, although basic, merits repeating on every occasion, that is, that the young need confidence. That is the reason I was delighted with the impact of Comhairle na nÓg for my son. If they have confidence everything else will follow.