Pádraig Mac Lochlainn (Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

I do not know what it is to be a young person, to grow up in the social media age, to be bombarded with imagery of what one should be, what one should speak like or how one should dance or any of those things, just like the middle-aged people in my time did not know what it was like when I was a teenager.

The Minister of State is a thoughtful guy. I have always thought so in all my times engaging with him. I ask him to look at the potential of this in the context of the local and European elections next year. Imagine the exciting opportunity it will present to engage with these young people I have seen who have continued to be elected in my time and since in the local authorities in Donegal and all across the country, because of course these frameworks are replicated across the State. This is a really exciting opportunity to say to young people who are finishing their secondary school education, who have been through their transition year, who are thinking about their future, going into college and what they are going to do with their lives, that they can now participate in the process of local government and European elections. I hope they will elect Deputies and Senators at some stage in the future.