Gerry Horkan (Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I thank all of the witnesses for being here. It is really valuable to have them here. Perhaps some more of our own Members could have been here, although they may be watching, but I have never seen the Seanad Chamber this full. It is never this full. You can tune in any day of the week and you will never see as many people in this room. The fact that the witnesses have all turned up and are here and that they have got involved with organisations that gave them the opportunity to be here is fantastic. I have no doubt that, in five, ten or 15 years' time, we will see some of their faces in this Chamber, in a new chamber somewhere else or in the Dáil. There is no doubt about that. Most of us were involved in youth politics in our younger days. I was. I remember watching Senator McDowell setting up a brand-new party when I was growing up and when he was younger than he is now. Senator Cassells and I were both in Ógra Fianna Fáil and, when that was set up in 1975, it was to challenge the main party rather than to be a patsy and to say that everything in the senior party was fine. Séamus Brennan set it up to challenge the senior party. It is really important that the witnesses are here and, for me, this is more of a listening exercise than a time to make long speeches. However, I do have a few points to make, reflecting the fact that I was listening.

I will not be available this afternoon because I am going to Germany Unity Day, which celebrates what is probably the most recent example of a unification process close to home. The day is technically Monday but the ambassador is having a small function this afternoon. It is fitting that we are here on the day that, so many years ago, East Germany and West Germany reunited. It had to go through a process to bring two systems and two peoples that had been divided for a long time together again. It provides a practical example. It is important to reflect on the Taoiseach's objective of a shared island. It is not about threatening or questioning anybody but determining how to share the island and, for example, how to merge our health services.

There is an issue in border areas right across the world. If a government invests in a border area, half of the people who benefit are not in its territory. That government is spending money for the benefit of people who cannot re-elect it. This can be seen in local authorities and at national and international level. Border areas will always suffer because, if you put money into the centre, everyone around there can vote for you. If you put it into north Monaghan - and I have a great-grandfather from Monaghan - some of the spillover will not benefit your jurisdiction and the people who can re-elect you. It is the same on the other side of the Border. That applies in Germany, Spain, Portugal or anywhere else. Those challenges have to be overcome. That is where things like the PEACE programme and other things have helped.

I am on the Joint Committee on Transport and Communications. We have done a lot on low-floor buses and so on but the idea that we are buying any transport infrastructure that is not accessible to everyone is completely unacceptable in this day and age.

I have a question. I took on board the points made on voting at 16. When I have campaigned as a candidate in local elections and, more recently, in general elections, I have found people who are aged 22, 23 and 24 who are not registered to vote. How do you engage? It is a challenge. The witnesses are here and engaged but in the South of Ireland we have recently seen young people who should not be driving at all ramming Garda cars and not participating or getting involved with organisations like those here today. How do you get those people engaged? How do you get people who are very comfortable and in very nice areas but who cannot be bothered voting or registering engaged? When a referendum on an issue they are interested in comes along they may register but I have found people of 23 or 24 who have just not bothered. That is a challenge I am asking the witnesses about.

I have another question for all of the witnesses. If they were around the Cabinet table tomorrow, as Taoiseach, Tánaiste or Minister for Children, Equality, Disability, Integration and Youth, what would they like to do first? What would be their number one and number two priorities? We have come a very long way as a country. I was looking at the number of people who did the leaving certificate in 1923. It was 700. There are now approximately 60,000. We have brought our country a long way but the past is the past.

We need to build on what we have achieved. With all of the representatives' help, involvement and advocacy, we need to make it a much better country for everybody on the island. We need to create a state that everybody wants to be part of as opposed to being part of a different state.

I may live in Dublin but I have two grandparents from Mayo. Mr. Forkan may have noticed that our names are not that dissimilar. I do not know if somebody spelled my name or his wrong a million years ago, but perhaps we are connected somewhere. Equally, while my grandmother was from Ballina, her father was from Monaghan. We are all more connected than we think we are. We probably have a lot more in common than divides us. At the same time, I can see Ms Lynch's point about the impact of tribal behaviour when people say "we are good and they are bad; you cannot talk to them or deal with them." This is what results when people have been brought up never knowing others. We heard the comment about eyes being too close together or not too close together, or whatever it was.

It is important that people talk. It is important that people listen and engage. My challenge and my question to the witnesses is to set out what would they like to do if they were in power, and not just here for a day. If they were here and had to get re-elected in three, four or five years' time, what would they say are their top priorities? With regard to youth engagement, how do we engage with those who are not here and are not involved? This is a problem in parts of the island from North to South, and from well-off areas to disadvantaged areas. I thank all of the witnesses for being here.