Mr. Cohen Taylor:

On North-South funding, when services are being designed, both in Northern Ireland and in the Republic, it is important that there is a joined-up approach, recognising the geography of the island and that young people share many issues. Whenever we, as young people, are working with government, it is important that the various North-South and east-west bodies established off the back of the Good Friday Agreement are used to try to have dialogue between politicians and to provide a more joined-up approach in crafting a budget which maximises the potential of the limited resources that we have.

As for cost-of-living pressures and youth services in Northern Ireland, all youth organisations across Northern Ireland have responded to the cost-of-living crisis as best they can with the resources they have. The cost-of-living crisis has brought a significant amount of poverty. I referenced the 15,000 families or households that presented as homeless in 2022-23. A statistic like that in a population of 1.9 million is a huge concern. Whenever we talk about youth participation and empowering young people, it is impossible to empower those young people unless their basic needs are being met first. Whenever Departments look at budgets and the funding they give to the voluntary sector, it is important that the funding that empowers young people but also funding that meets their basic needs is protected.

The Northern Ireland Youth Forum does amazing work on homelessness. It works with the Department for Communities and the Housing Executive. It does a huge amount of work on mental health issues and that is funded in part by the Department of Health. The Translink Youth Forum is also one of our programmes. There is a lot of youth work that goes on the ground in organisations like ours that is, fully or partly, funded by the Government in Northern Ireland. It is important that funding continues so that young people can continue to come to spaces such as this one and have their voices heard. It is all part of a ladder of participation, which it is important to recognise.