Mr. Eugene Downes:

In response to one of Senator Warfield's points, there is no doubt that the participation of young citizens, be it through the formal education system or as young artists or the audiences of today and tomorrow, and individual and collective artistic and creative expression feed directly into democratic debate and political expression and how intimately they are connected. Some of our member organisations include the Dublin Youth Dance Company, the Dublin Youth Theatre, the Irish National Youth Ballet Company, the National Youth Council and the National Youth Orchestra of Ireland. This is an extraordinary range of organisations all around the country, not to mention traditional music and dance.

Scotland comes up a number of times as an interesting parallel. Two weeks ago, I took part in the Edinburgh International Culture Summit. About 40 culture Ministers from around the world, including the Minister for Regional Development, Rural Affairs, Arts and the Gaeltacht, participated. Interestingly, Scotland made sure that about a quarter of the delegates were young citizens and their voices were central to that dialogue on cultural policy, not just in Scotland but globally. It is interesting that giving the vote to 16-year-olds in the Scottish referendum liberated an awareness of the importance of young citizens in the cultural arena as well. That is something we would strongly support as the National Campaign for the Arts.