Réada Cronin (Kildare North, Sinn Fein)

I welcome the young people to the Gallery. It is great to have so many people in the gallery on a Thursday afternoon. I give a special mention to Paul Minnock and Charlotte Minnock, who are with me on work experience. Ba mhaith liom mo bhuíochas a ghabháil leis na Daonlathaithe Sóisialta as ucht an rún seo a chur os comhair na Dála inniu. Tá sé tábhachtach go bhfuil guth ag daoine óga sa lá atá inniu ann. It is very important that young people are heard and not simply seen. Their involvement in politics can be inspired from a young age. I salute an Teachta Farrelly, my north Kildare comrade, for tabling this Bill. It is the young people, after all, who will face the consequences of the actions we take inside this Chamber more than any of us. They are acutely aware of that fact.

The young people of today are more political than any others I have seen before. They are learning about the effects of climate change every day in school and understand that this issue may not be top of the political priority list for today's politicians. You would know that if you attended any of the climate committees. It was full to the brim in the previous term. Unfortunately, we are lucky to get four or five members this term. It is really important for our young people that we make sure we deal with climate change. As we speak, COP30 is underway with leaders of the world attending in the hopes of building consensus around actions on climate change. How many more COPs must we have before we see genuine action taken, not just words, on that issue?

Our Taoiseach has said that he travelled to Brazil to attend COP to show Ireland's commitments to climate resolutions. He also said he went to demonstrate to other countries that were absent that Ireland was serious about tackling climate change. I hope he talks to some of his members on the climate committee and makes sure they are not absent from the climate committee and actually engage on this issue, considering how important it is. How can he possibly say this when his Government has failed to meet modest national targets set at home? We are not taking climate change and climate action seriously. Young people know this best. They know this because they are politically engaged on issues like this and social justice. These are issues that directly affect them and they want to lead the conversation on these topics, not be talked down to by politicians like the Minister of State or me.

If we look at the international perspective, the evidence of young people engaged in politics is even more obvious. The Gen Z protests in south-east Asia shocked many when young people organised online to bring down corrupt governments in Nepal and elsewhere there. Nepal was particularly striking, as there was rampant corruption among Nepalese Government officials. It was well known but little action was taken. It was only through a server on Discord that young people convened and decided that enough was enough. Not only did they take action to overthrow their Government, but they also continued to raise their voice and shape their own future by holding a vote online to decide who they thought should be the next leader.

This is democracy in action and was carried out by young people who were previously thought to be too online to actually be engaged in politics. However, these stereotypes continue at home. I mentioned my two transition year students earlier. They are in here on work experience with me. They are from Confey College in Leixlip. They are only delighted to get the opportunity to come up today to Leinster House and see democracy in action. They have ideas. They care about housing. They care about climate change. They care about being heard. They have opinions on issues like everybody else, whether it is the arts or social justice, yet their opinions are essentially dismissed by us when we tell them they have to wait and they do not have a voice until they are 18 years old. Caithfimid éisteacht le daoine óga agus tacú leo freisin.

One of the best things I always remember from when I was young was how in a hurry I was to grow up because of the thoughts of being able to go into town on my own, being able to go to the disco that was only for the older people or whatever it was. We always had one eye to the future. I believe that if you extend the responsibility of voting to people of 16 and 17, they will take that with great seriousness and genuinely think about who they want to vote for and why. I remember myself when I was young, my father told me to go out and vote 1, 2 and 3 for Fianna Fáil.

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