Ms LilyRose Wogan-Martin:

I am 12 years old and I go to St. Vincent de Paul girls school in Dublin. We are part of the children’s council, and we help The Ark with decision-making and give our opinions on everything it does. I have been on The Ark’s children’s council since 2019. We are a group of children in fifth class, sixth class and first year from Dublin and its surrounding areas. We did a national call-out to children asking what the pandemic was like for them and some of these references will be in our speeches. I will give the committee an insight into how the pandemic affected me and other school kids in Ireland, including the impact 15 months ago and now.

During the first lockdown, we were all encouraged for our mental welfare to go walking with our families, but the fact that older people shunned us and in many cases tried to walk in the middle of the road rather than pass us, left a bitter taste in my mouth and made me want to stay in rather than go out. This week an Irish newspaper had a report about research on children being vectors at the start of lockdown. I found it amazing that it took 15 months to discuss this and I was even more amazed that it was not prioritised sooner. I was lucky that my mother and father were always with me, but I was sick of sitting in the car while my mother did all the shopping. On Mother's Day, my brother and I made a banner for my granny and waved and danced outside her window. Little did I know that would be the last time I would see her, as we were not allowed to visit her in the hospital before she passed away. I am sure many children are in the same situation as me, but that does not make it any easier.

As part of our national call-out we heard from many children about their school life experience of the pandemic. Grace, aged 13, from Louth, wrote "I miss progress." Although we learned how to use Google Classroom, we missed all the social elements of school and learning. We did not progress socially and did not get to reach our own goals. Dave, in fifth class, missed "normal life". Normal life for most kids is going to school, even if we give out about it. Boredom does not happen so much in school. We used to spend time discussing after-school activities, but we did not even have that at first. Ava, in fifth class, said "Now we are back in school, I feel better" – I think that sums up the feelings of many kids. Even if school feels different, with hand sanitizers everywhere, being only in pods, walking in one direction and seeing Covid-19 posters everywhere, please remember that, with the help of our school and teachers, who were also scared, we did what we had to.

Things have changed a lot now. Sometimes my teacher will ask what we did over the weekend, and, before Covid-19, I would usually have said something that sounds amazing now, like swimming in the sea in Wexford, going to sporting events or some activity. Now, I talk about simpler things, like the coconut-scented soap in the supermarket or that we had chicken for dinner.

Much essential care for kids with specific needs was missed or reduced and this has caused an ongoing problem to them and their families, resulting in anxiety going into secondary school and with no real additional help from anyone. In our call-out, Felix, aged 6 from Dublin, talked about how masks sometimes make communication more difficult for autistic children. Basic needs like physiotherapy, assessments etc. were cancelled, delayed or reduced. This caused issues to get worse daily. Zoom was not always an option for many people due to lack of devices in some cases, lack of knowledge about using the software, glitches in the middle of sessions and some children just felt uncomfortable on it.

My brother has no date yet for his communion and he did not have a graduation from his school last year. My confirmation is now due in November. Will everyone attend when we will all be in different secondary schools? There was no wake for my granny who died in May 2020 and we only had ten people at the funeral. For the funeral of my aunt, who died in November, we only had 25 people in the church. Primary school graduation will be a blend of pre-recording and online activity. Everyone had a birthday in lockdown, but it is children who want to celebrate their birthdays the most. With not many shops open, people did not even have many options for gifts.

What will happen next? I am looking forward to getting vaccinated. Most of all, though, I am looking forward to all my family being able to travel home so we can all be together and, especially, to not feeling scared anymore. All children, even the very young, who did not understand, deserve appreciation and respect for all the fear thrown at us and we would appreciate not being forgotten now by the same adults.