Annie Hoey (Labour)
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I thank the witnesses for their presentations, which were interesting. Often, when young people say this, that and the other and that the Government does not understand, others dismiss them as just being young. As such, it is useful to have the evidence base of the witnesses' research. Not that we should have to have a study in order to believe someone, of course. Sometimes, a great failing of the political class is that we refuse to believe what people say unless it is presented to us in a paper or study.

I was particularly interested in the remark that the top four emotions were bored, stressed, depressed and anxious. We are members of the Joint Sub-Committee on Mental Health, so we are all obviously concerned about mental health. Otherwise, we would not be here. Young people have got a bad rap during the lockdown and there is a collectivist belief that they just need to put up with it. It would be problematic going forward if there were such an attitude towards young people in employment and social welfare offices and across society at large. Ms Cummins referred to the role that she believed youth radio stations could play. Will she elaborate on how they might tackle young people's bad rap? There is a significant problem coming down the line. The current young generation is not the first one to have experienced this, but the belief that young people just need to get on with things and pull themselves up by their socks is heightened at the moment.

I will make a second point, after which the witnesses might reply. When I worked in further and higher education - it is my area - we always asked about who was not in the room. I imagine I already know what the response will be, but the diversity of representation in the psychology sphere is probably not what we would like it to be because of the elitist aspect of people having to take unpaid internships and so on that lock people out of a career. Will Ms Dillon elaborate on this and what impact it will have? We cannot have the same people constantly represented in a profession. It is not good for the profession or the people with whom psychologists work. What impact is the requirement of unpaid internships having on the sector's diversity?