Ms Ashley Chadamoyo Makombe:

Funding is also something that is super important. I say that as a young person trying to get funding to create an initiative. I set up an arts and media collective during Covid with my friend called The GALPAL Collective for young women, queer folk and people of colour. The idea is that it would be a kind of online magazine and we could teach each other and create the type of media that we want to see in the world. Getting funding for something like that is very difficult, especially if you are in education. We cannot apply for most funding opportunities until we are out of university. At that point, when we finish university, like most young people in Ireland, we are thinking about emigrating and again our talents are going elsewhere. I do not see the accessibility so that young people can set up their own magazines and media publications based in Ireland and are telling the stories that young people want to hear. That could make a world of difference when it comes to losing the young person's voice in the media landscape.