John McGahon (Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

Unfortunately, no speakers from the Gallery are allowed, only Members, whether people put their hands up or not.

The point is, without the theatrics, I am putting forward a point of view based on my experience as a young person in this country. I am someone who came out of the height of a recession in 2009. I have seen what my friends in their 20s have done throughout that period and what they are coming back to this country for now. That is important to recognise. I am not saying that everything is well and good but it is important to recognise that is the case.

When we look at the cost of living for students and young people in this country and the things we have done in the past couple of weeks, one of the big issues I have talked about is transport. Where I come from, Dundalk, the vast majority of people commute to Dublin. This has always been the way, whether it is getting on the bus to go to Dublin City University, Trinity College Dublin or wherever else. That is the way they do it. We have reduced public transport fares by half. One thing we did not do is reduce fares for privately funded transport and the main way people get from my town to Dublin is via private transport. We listened to young people throughout the country who take that private transport and in the past couple of weeks we have now expanded that 50% to include private as well as public transport. To outline the real-term difference, three weeks ago, someone taking private transport from Dundalk to Dublin was paying €17 to get a return ticket. They are now paying €5.50. This is real-term money.That is a small but key example of something we are doing to try to tackle the cost-of-living crisis. I have said previously in the Seanad that I feel young people got a terrible rap from certain sectors of society and the media at the height of the Covid pandemic for doing nothing more than enjoying themselves, including being told to move along when they were in public spaces and whatever else. We need to realise that through no fault of anyone's - it was a worldwide pandemic - young people lost two years of some of the best years of their lives, a time when they get to make lifelong friends and have really good experiences that shape their 20s and their adult outlooks. Those two years were taken away from them. We should have cut them more slack throughout the pandemic and we did not.

My sister Ruth is 21. She has just finished in UCD. She is now spending a year doing the 400 free hours of work experience she needs before she can do a masters because she wants to become a social worker. I have listened to what she has said to some of her friends. When I was 18, 19 and 20, the concept of mental health was not even spoken about among people of my age. When I speak to Ruth now and people of her age, it is spoken about. People are now prepared to speak out about mental health, about issues they are facing and about the funding that is going into it. Ten years ago, when I was 17, 18 and 19, it did not exist. It was still a taboo to talk about mental health. That is less than a decade ago.

Young people in this country are to be commended on their courage, ability to stand up and their ability to call things out whether they agree with it or not. People are perfectly entitled to agree or disagree. The whole purpose of the debate we are having today is to test opposing opinions and discuss what we think young people in this country need and want. This has been a very good debate and I commend my Independent colleagues on bringing the motion forward. I look forward to the rest of the contributions.