Dara Calleary (Mayo, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I thank all of our presenters for their contributions. I will stick to the Chair's instructions on the basis that Deputy Ó Murchú does too. I am intrigued by the low levels of optimism picked up in Eurofound's research. Is that predominantly Covid related or how much would that be related to other issues, for instance, the issue of climate and how that impacts on young people?

As we transition into a new phase of Covid, how much of a role will climate and climate change play in the various initiatives that will be rolled out for the European Year of Youth? That is a question for all our guests. How much of that funding is ring-fenced for climate initiatives? In my day-to-day work with young people, I find that climate is one area in which they are more engaged than most other sectors of the community.

Mr. McNulty said that the notion of a Year of Youth was a surprise to him. He spoke about a European bubble but there is not much awareness beyond the Leinster House bubble this morning that this is the European Year of Youth. How are we going to rescue that? I ask the representatives from Léargas to answer that question. I do not blame Léargas but this seems to have been landed on a lot of people. If someone as engaged as our NYCI representative is surprised by it, I can imagine the general populace is as well. We are in the last week of February. Will there be some sort of big initiative to raise awareness of this through our schools and colleges as we move towards the back end of the academic year? I want to get an idea of how we are going to grab people's attention.

The Irish mental health figures are 6% lower than the EU average. Could Mr. Kalfin dig into that and dive into it a little bit more?