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From:Department of Children, Disability and Equality

Maidin mhaith daoibh go léir. Is mór an onóir dom fáilte a chur romhaibh chuig an gcomhdháil seo i gCaisleán Bhaile Átha Cliath.

Commissioner McGrath, distinguished guests, colleagues, and especially the young people who have joined us from across Ireland and Europe, welcome to Dublin Castle.

Over the course of today and tomorrow, we will focus on the efforts required to include children and young people in decision making when times are already unpleasant or particularly challenging.

When we, as different societies or governments or as adults, face challenges or crises, particularly related to children, it can be tempting on occasion to focus only on the immediate problem. It can be tempting not to take the time to seek the input of young people themselves, but those are often the moments where young people's voices, visions, and lived experience are most important to finding the solution.

And today, we hope that the focus will be on ensuring that, at all times, the views, experience, and wishes of young people are a considered part of any formulation of policy.

So that's the challenge that's before all of you for the next two days: how to ensure that young people are at the centre of decision making and policy formation? I wish you well in the deliberation, and I thank you for being part of the solution here today.

The Irish EU presidency has a really great slogan taken from our own national language, and the slogan we have is “Ní neart go cur le chéile”. That means there is no strength without unity. In other words, it means everyone must be included.

But there is also another very well-known Irish phrase, and it's particularly appropriate, I think, to our young delegates here today, and it's “Mol an óige agus tiocfaidh sí”, and that means praise young people, and they will rise, they will come. So, in other words, give young people the opportunity, and they will rise. And that's what we're about today: seeking out opportunities for you, full in the knowledge that you will rise to it when you get the opportunity to contribute.

Young people's input has been a feature of the planning of this presidency and this particular event. I know over the course of these two days, you will meet with members from the Irish Youth Advisory Group, who guided the preparations for this particular conference and particularly the youth consultation element.

Young people have been involved in our Presidency long before planning for this conference granted. However, because the young delegates of Seanad na nÓg, which is Ireland's youth senate, met last November to discuss their priority for Ireland's presidency and council, their recommendations have really, really impacted on Ireland's overall Presidency programme, and I want to thank them for their involvement.

I firmly believe that participation begins with understanding. If children and young people are to influence decisions, they first need information about those decisions.

We want children and young people to see how the presidency is relevant to them, and as part of that goal, a child-friendly version of the presidency programme has been produced. Again, our youth advisory board here in Ireland of Seanad na nÓg have been involved in providing these materials, making sure they are appealing to children and young people.

The child-friendly materials will be distributed through our school network when the next academic year begins in September, and it will be supported by a guide for reading the programme for teenagers.

Children have the right to express their views on matters that affect or impact their lives, and to have those views taken seriously, including, as this conference focuses upon, the most challenging settings or the most challenging moments in their lives. This is a commitment that all member states have made by ratifying the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child.

As a union, we work to progress through networks like the EU Children's Participation Platform, and we know that some of the most effective public policies engage or emerge when decision makers listen to the people who use them.

In Ireland, we have found this in many ways, and an example that I believe is particularly powerful relates to our Youth Travel Card.

In 2021, the National Executive of Comhairle na nÓg, our youth council, proposed the introduction of a youth travel card as they identified access to public transport as a key issue for young people right across Ireland. The proposal was that the card would reduce the cost of public transport for young people up to the age of 25 by at least 50%. The Youth Council presented their proposals to the Minister for Children, the Minister for Transport and the Taoiseach, as part of Budget 2022. The then-Minister for Public Expenditure and Reform and our now-EU Commissioner, Michael McGrath, announced €25 million for this initiative, and the card was officially launched in May 2022. This youth card is now used by thousands of young people across Ireland, possibly by some of the young people who are joining us here today. A very, very good example of a proactive intervention by young people that ultimately became government policy.

So, in Ireland, we are proud of the work that we have done to foster child and youth participation in policy making. Already, around 4,000 young people took part in government decision-making just in this past year.

But we also know that the participation of children and young people in decision-making at national and EU level remains uneven.

Some children face additional barriers to participation that must be identified before they are overcome.

Many decisions that will impact the lives of children are often still made without their direct input. This can be particularly evident in challenging settings. The types of settings, for example, you will be discussing today, and the settings described on the posters in the exhibitions outside.

So, I will now turn to one particular area where participation matters urgently today, and that's the digital world.

Policymakers, business leaders, and regulators are all grappling with the impact of the opportunities and the risks that the digital world can provide for us.

It is an important discussion at an EU level, and one which the Irish Presidency is committed to progressing.

And I believe we have a duty to ensure the technologies and systems we develop and facilitate are safe and also inclusive.

There are particular concerns about the impact of social media platforms on young people.

It's interesting to note that research tells us that in OECD countries, on weekdays, 66% of 15-year-old girls and 61% of 15-year-old boys spend at least three hours or more per day on social media, while over 50% of them having reported seeing disturbing content.

The European Child Safety Panel report commissioned by the European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen found that high social media use among children and young people is associated with sleep and concentration problems, and increased rates of depression and anxiety.

Addictive design features in social media platforms feed into this by encouraging compulsive checking, fear of missing out, and comparing your life to others all around the world. As we all know, as adults, this does not just affect or impact young people. So, changes have to be made, but there should never be change without consultation. We need to work with young people to hear their voices, because social media is part of how you live your lives today.

So that is why I am pleased that this conference will provide a real opportunity for the Irish Presidency of the Council of the EU to hear directly from young people about their views of the digital world, including social media platforms.

As Shane mentioned earlier, we are already looking for your views through our online poll, and I think it's really interesting to see the difference of opinions that have emerged between the adults and young people gathered in the room thus far.

So, the survey is ongoing, but I will share with you just some of the preliminary results at this point. It would appear that 75% of the young people surveyed here have expressed their concern about harmful content on social media, and 42% at this point actually are very concerned. In terms of the adults, 91% of adults are concerned about harmful content on social media, and 76% said that they were very concerned. Now that's just a preliminary result, the polling continues, and we will hear more as the day continues.

But it's interesting to see that there is a shared concern amongst young people and elders in this room about harmful content on social media, and it is a high level of shared concern. So, I suppose we need to be conscious of what we learn here today, and then, what do we do with the information that we gain?

I want you to know that this is not the end of the consultation from our point of view in Ireland, because through our network of local youth councils, Comhairle na nÓg, and their system of annual youth conference, we will take a step further, and we will gather the input of over 3,000 young people. And when all of the views, including the views from today and the views of those 3,000 young people, are ascertained, we will share those views with my cabinet colleague, Minister O’Donovan, who is leading out on Ireland's policy on online safety.

So, to the young people here today, I want you to know that your participation matters. I want all young people across the EU to realise that their active participation matters.

Your involvement here today, the involvement of other young people over our six months will really, really feed into the decisions that are made at an EU level.

Specifically, in relation to what will happen over the next two days here, I know that there will be valuable conversations about how we can work together to embed the participation of children and young people in decision-making, and we will learn from what you share with us.

Ireland will bring what you share with us and all that we learn from the exhibits outside and everything else to the Council table later this year.

Ireland will work to agree ‘Council Conclusions’ on the topic of enhancing children's participation in decisions that affect their lives, and we will do this in December.

‘Council Conclusions’ is a technical EU term, but put simply, it means that we will work with all EU member states to agree practical actions that can help ensure that children and young people are heard when decisions are being made about their lives.

So again, to all the young people here gathered, I want to be clear: your contribution will matter today and over the coming days. And what you say over the next two days can help shape decisions at European level.

Thank you to each one of you for making the effort to be here and to join us in Dublin. I'm sure it will be a very stimulating and, I hope, a very enjoyable experience for each one of you.

I hope that this will be the first of many future Presidency conferences and events that include and promote the participation and active citizenship of young people. I hope we have a worthwhile conference, and truly do look forward to the outcome from your discussions, and especially from this online consultation and your deliberations throughout this particular day.

Go raibh míle maith agaibh, thank you all.