Ms Kate Lynch:

It is really interesting. Everyone has answered their own questions. The key is discussion. Senator Clonan is going to love this bit of Belfast dialect, but, by not having the discussion, you are creating an us'uns and them'uns and a yous'uns and them'uns. Politicians help create that divide. I am not saying it is those present but the institution in which politicians work whenever people refuse to engage in the conversation by saying they cannot focus on a certain thing because they are now focusing on another. The subject under discussion should always be at the root of what we are talking about because it is clearly what every single one of us wants.

I agree with Ms Clyde in that, in Belfast, it is very much about where you are born. It is so hard to break out of that community. As Senator Ó Donnghaile will know, north Belfast is the best place in County Antrim. It is the jewel of the North; it is my favourite place in the entire world. It is the best. All I am saying is that it is great. It is really hard to look past that community when that is what I have been told. People ask, "Why would you associate with that community? C'mon, you have three chippies here; that is amazing." That is how we categorise it in Belfast. I really appreciate Senator Ó Donnghaile's desire to engage in north Belfast. It is really hard to get people at a table or in a community. That is something we have experienced as an organisation. It relates to the amazing question of what I would like to do. I refer to broadening branches. It is a question of having more youth services across the whole of Ireland. There are barely any youth services anywhere outside our hotspots. Even Derry barely has youth branches.

It is all very Belfast- and Dublin-centric, whereas in places like Banbridge, Tyrone and Monaghan, there are not as many options as there are in the North. I am just speaking from my experience as a youth worker.

By broadening that branch, you are answering your own question about the vote at 16. By broadening that branch, young people can gain qualifications and experience in ways they cannot anywhere else. For example, education does not work for everybody. There will always be people who do not have a GCSE, an A level or a degree to their name. From my experience of youth projects, I have been able to gain qualifications through them when I did not think I would get a single qualification from school. Through that, it comes down to the apprenticeship role as well, by getting involved and learning in a different way and with different people. It helps to build awareness around why the vote at 16 is important and why it is important to engage with your government, because you are learning in a different way. We follow a curriculum in youth work. It is about personal and social development, such as learning about your rights and what is important in your communities and stuff like that.