Results 2,401-2,420 of 18,851 for speaker:Fergus O'Dowd

Joint Oireachtas Committee on the Implementation of the Good Friday Agreement: Engagement with Strive (19 May 2022)

Fergus O'Dowd: I welcome Ms Dearbhla Holohan, from Include Youth, the Strive programme co-ordinator, Ms Debbie Watters, director of Northern Ireland alternatives, Ms Mary Nolan, director of Newstart Education Centre, and Mr. Tony Silcock, CEO of Youth Initiatives, to our meeting. They are very welcome. Some people are attending our meeting remotely and will ask the witnesses questions and hopefully praise...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on the Implementation of the Good Friday Agreement: Engagement with Strive (19 May 2022)

Fergus O'Dowd: Do any of our other guests wish to contribute at this stage? If they do, that is fine; if they do not, we will go to members for questions and discussion. Our guests should feel free to intervene at any stage. It is a relaxed process. Senator Currie is having computer issues, so I call Deputy Carroll MacNeill.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on the Implementation of the Good Friday Agreement: Engagement with Strive (19 May 2022)

Fergus O'Dowd: That is a profound response. There is much sense in what Ms Watters said. I used to be a teacher in a school where many of the students had difficult backgrounds. She put her finger on it. She has identified her support for them as individuals and recognised their importance and self-worth. I read a report published yesterday on productivity at work. Because of the problems and...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on the Implementation of the Good Friday Agreement: Engagement with Strive (19 May 2022)

Fergus O'Dowd: We have a serious drug problem among young people in the South and I am sure it is also a problem in the North. We plan to visit Belfast soon. I ask that the witnesses might identify if we could meet some young people on both sides of the divide if they think that would be appropriate. We would like to do that as it would be helpful for us and hopefully support what the witnesses want. ...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on the Implementation of the Good Friday Agreement: Engagement with Strive (19 May 2022)

Fergus O'Dowd: Sinn Féin has the next 15-minute slot. Deputy Conway Walsh can indicate the other speakers in her party.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on the Implementation of the Good Friday Agreement: Engagement with Strive (19 May 2022)

Fergus O'Dowd: The young people might or might not feel confident enough to come down here to speak for themselves but, truthfully, we would love to hear what they have to say. Our biggest problem is meeting political loyalism, for want of a different word. There is no engagement. We want to work with everyone, as does Strive. That is really where it is at. If we can bring about that change or Strive...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on the Implementation of the Good Friday Agreement: Engagement with Strive (19 May 2022)

Fergus O'Dowd: On that point, I live in a town called Drogheda and we have the Drogheda United soccer team, which contacted me about the following matter. It wants to have a game of football with a team from the loyalist community in the North on the site of the Battle of the Boyne. That would be a day out for everybody with social mixing, including for young children. There is a lot of goodwill...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on the Implementation of the Good Friday Agreement: Engagement with Strive (19 May 2022)

Fergus O'Dowd: There are other groups who would feel like you also. Have you formed a lobbying group? Perhaps we can assist in that, in the context of the shared island as my colleague has suggested, or by supporting this and drawing attention to the inequalities, especially when one is looking at programmes and the matrix is militating against your good work. This committee would be happy to help out in...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on the Implementation of the Good Friday Agreement: Engagement with Strive (19 May 2022)

Fergus O'Dowd: Mr. Silcock has indicated.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on the Implementation of the Good Friday Agreement: Engagement with Strive (19 May 2022)

Fergus O'Dowd: I attended a meeting of the North South Youth Forum in Drogheda on Monday. I can share the email about it later. The forum came to our town and there were about 90 young people from post-primary schools in attendance. They spoke to us about their needs. They were working with people in the North. From 24 June to 26 June, they are to have a conference at which they will have a plan....

Joint Oireachtas Committee on the Implementation of the Good Friday Agreement: Engagement with Strive (19 May 2022)

Fergus O'Dowd: It is an important point. The difficulty with elections in the North, without discussing the outcome, is that people may retreat to their traditional view, looking in and not looking out. There is no attraction in looking to the future with the Assembly right now to open a door or even a window. It is the problem.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on the Implementation of the Good Friday Agreement: Engagement with Strive (19 May 2022)

Fergus O'Dowd: How useful are role models in changing young people's minds be they sports stars, television personalities or somebody in the communities with no labels attached to them? Is there much interaction with people who offer their capacity to bring young people out of themselves and possibly get them to mix with other people they would not normally mix with?

Joint Oireachtas Committee on the Implementation of the Good Friday Agreement: Engagement with Strive (19 May 2022)

Fergus O'Dowd: I thank Ms Gildernew and I call Senator Blaney.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on the Implementation of the Good Friday Agreement: Engagement with Strive (19 May 2022)

Fergus O'Dowd: Of course I will, that is fine.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on the Implementation of the Good Friday Agreement: Engagement with Strive (19 May 2022)

Fergus O'Dowd: It is key.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on the Implementation of the Good Friday Agreement: Engagement with Strive (19 May 2022)

Fergus O'Dowd: Hear, hear.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on the Implementation of the Good Friday Agreement: Engagement with Strive (19 May 2022)

Fergus O'Dowd: That is a very productive and good ending to our meeting. I know that Senator Blaney and everybody else has been impressed, particularly with the clarity and the truth of what our guests have been saying. I never thought about this issue in terms of losing one’s European identity because it did not happen to us down here. I appreciate our guests saying that and how important it...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on the Implementation of the Good Friday Agreement: Engagement with Strive (19 May 2022)

Fergus O'Dowd: I thank Ms Watters very much.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on the Implementation of the Good Friday Agreement: Engagement with Strive (19 May 2022)

Fergus O'Dowd: They are the people who count. Teachers and politicians can talk to young people all day but they will not listen to adults. They will listen to a role model.