Ms Anne O'Donnell:

We were asked about the research. We pulled out just one page of data from that very big study, which is available on the website of the Department of Children and Youth Affairs. I am present here to comment on the establishment of an electoral commission. If such a body is established, it needs to play a part in this national strategy and it needs to listen to and get the views of children and young people under the age of 18, even though they are not yet of voting age. If children and young people are not actively engaged in decision making, they will not feel a sense of engagement when they become adults. It is clear from the evidence - both the research and what children and young people say - that they want to be involved in making decisions. They want to be engaged. They want to be asked what they think. That can be facilitated at all ages in many ways, obviously appropriate to the age level of the child or young person in question.