Dr. Niall Muldoon:

Essentially, hearing the voice of the child is compulsory in our legislation. It is part of the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child that anybody making decisions about children should have children involved in those decisions. My predecessor had a youth advisory panel for seven or eight years. The young people at that stage themselves decided they did not need to be involved anymore because what she was doing was moving into listening to children in specific areas. She would listen perhaps to children who were in adult prisons at the time or children who might have been coming into direct provision. The young people felt they were not contributing anymore, so we closed down that youth advisory panel.

I started my term in office without a youth advisory panel, but we felt we were missing something so we re-engaged in it. Unfortunately, we decided to do it just as Covid-19 came, so Zoom was certainly the key part of it. Probably for the first year it was all Zoom. We have people from all over the country and different backgrounds. Different cohorts and people have been suggested by different NGOs and advocacy groups and then people suggest themselves as well. It certainly will be ongoing from our point of view. We set it up with the United Nations committee in mind, but it has been such a success. It is just brilliant. What the Senator sees here is just the tip of the iceberg. These guys are just top class; they are brilliant. They are strong and articulate and they are great representatives for their generation.