Mr. James Whelton:

From what I have seen from my generation, I would say most definitely that there is still that hanging air of doom and gloom and a feeling that young people are starting to get frustrated at the status quo and are taking action. Young people are trapped in the structure that one must go to college and take the safe career of being a lawyer, doctor, etc. We all see that those markets are saturated, that there are graduates with masters degrees who are unable to find work. This idea of being confined to the system and a victim of conformity is doing a great deal of damage in Ireland. I would suggest that we must show that - the teachers will hate me - not going to college is not the end of the world and young people must see that it is possible to become empowered, step forward and drive major change.

I understand the Government's hands are tied. It is a very tough time. I would say that the Government has a major ability to act as a platform to showcase and facilitate many of these movements, particularly as there have been outstanding people in government. Mr. Seán Kelly MEP, brought CoderDojo to the European Parliament and ran it there with children from the various CoderDojo clubs from all over Europe, congregating and programming in the European Parliament. This opened up so many new leads, such as the House of Lords. We are rolling out over Belgium soon. I refer to those such as the Minister of State at the Department of Education and Skills, Deputy Ciarán Cannon, who has been instrumental in spreading CoderDojo in his area and also running it in Leinster House. I implore more politicians to step forward, be genuine and passionate about this and try to spread it in their areas, but take genuine interest in these matters, or even, instead of formalised talks, merely meet for coffee. I invite any of the Senators to come over and play playstation with me and my friends and we will talk about changing the education system. I would ask them to continue the conversation.

In all respects, social entrepreneurship in Ireland is a revolution in the grand scheme of things and I have seen that revolutions can be more powerful than evolution. I would suggest that we continue to keep our ear to the ground to get more young people empowered to break them out of the chains of normality and get them to step up and take action, and continue the conversations with the older and wiser.