Pádraig Mac Lochlainn (Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

Perhaps the Senator can read the transcript later to see what I have to say.

A number of years ago the Donegal Youth Council was established. If the Minister of State speaks to his colleague, the Minister of State, Deputy McHugh, he will discover that he was one of the people who advocated the council back in the day. It has been a tremendous success. Students elected their representatives from various secondary schools across the county onto the youth council and then those councillors attended local area council meetings and submitted to us the issues of concern. It could have been mental health, supports around drugs or, as often was the case, resource centres. These were issues that were pertinent to young people, and the issues they brought to our attention as councillors came from their fellow students. I am immensely proud of it, and every time I engaged with their elected councillors I made it clear to them that they did not come to us as anything other than equals, that they had a mandate, just like we did, and that they had a right to put their issues on the table and then come back in a number of months' time to see whether those issues had been addressed. That is an excellent model. Those young people in secondary school are engaging with the political and democratic process. They are realising that they have rights and the capacity to raise those rights and to ensure they are acted upon in their community. It was empowering. It was the right way to go.

I found myself a number of years later watching the young people take part in the debate on the independence referendum in Scotland, discussing whether or not they would vote for independence. It was the first time, as the Minister of State knows, that 16 and 17 year olds had the ability to participate. I found it inspirational to see these young people so well informed on such a huge, profound issue as the future constitutional position of their country and arguing either side of that debate. We must stop patronising young people. We must stop talking to them as if we know what it is like to be a 16, 17, 18 or 19 year old. I am 44. I am totally disconnected from these matters. People say I am young. I am not young; I am middle-aged.