Mr. Chris Quinn:

I thank the Deputy Conway-Walsh and Mr. Maskey. The questions they asked are right up our street as a youth forum. Young people have been talking about North-South co-operation for quite some time. As I said, our lobby has been going on for 13 years. The other ask I was going to come to was about young people having an opportunity to engage directly with decision makers like this committee. In the North, we have a political champions group that meets young people regularly and is part of the architecture of the North-South Youth Forum. We would like to set up something similar and perhaps have the opportunity to bring young people to this committee. That would be a solid ask.

There are two pieces of research I can refer to in the context of the protocol. One took place in May, as we approached the centenary of partition and the establishment of Northern Ireland, and the other is our Looking Beyond Borders research which asks young people's views on legacy matters, Covid-19 and contemporary issues. Perhaps unsurprisingly, young people are talking to us about the big societal issues. They are talking about Covid-19, poverty, housing, educational underachievement and discrimination. That is not to say that the constitutional question is not important. It still is important. However, young people are very focused on overcoming these big issues that we are facing across the island of Ireland. They are talking a lot about having a space to talk about legacy matters. They want to have a part in a conversation about a potential Border poll and they have expressed their frustration about not having a say on Brexit.

With regard to the protocol, our latest survey suggests, according to the statistics that I am seeing in front of me, that the big issues for young people are around human rights and climate change. Some 42% of respondents to our latest survey talked about human rights being the number one issue. Only 7% of young people who responded talked about Brexit being the big issue for them. This survey is live at the moment. Many young people are saying that they do not really understand the protocol or care too much for it. The bigger issues for young people are discussions relating to identity, culture and their role in society, particularly Protestant or unionist working class young males and where their role is in society right now. The latter are a group we very seldom hear from. My hope is that forums like ours, the North-South Youth Forum, or a civic forum, can very much help to engage people who feel disenfranchised. I am conscious of time so I will pause and allow other colleagues to come in.