Rose Conway-Walsh urges citizens assembly and youth role

I do want to give Chris an opportunity. He got to one of his asks, so I want to give him an opportunity for the three asks. My questions are specifically for Chris and Tara. Chris, I think that is a very positive move in terms of the NIU Assembly. Just to let you know that I am the rapporteur for a cross-border education initiative looking at student mobility and opportunities. across the island, and I know from the Education Committee we would be extremely interested in talking to your group and having their input into that, into looking at some of the barriers for further and higher education. I just want to ask you as well, because what comes back to me in my portfolio all the time is around the implementation of the Good Friday Agreement, and particularly in relation to the future of our island and how young people can be involved in shaping our island and the constitutional future. They say to me, we need a citizens assembly on that, specifically on that, and I want to ask you, is that being discussed within your group where young people can have an input or how you might see that happening? Tara, Tara, I want to ask you the same question, and I am very familiar with Longford Women's Link and the brilliant work that you do. I know the challenges there in terms of the pilot projects and the projects that you are doing and put huge work into. I think we need to all work collectively to try and get those mainstreamed in a better way so that we have a better interface between what you are doing and the political system. But, again, what women are saying to me around the constitutional future of the island is that, yes, we want to look at it, but we want an architecture there. And we have seen from experience the positive results of a citizens assembly. So, is that something that is being discussed within women's groups? And how would you see that developing into the future in terms of women's groups across the island being involved in the setting up of a citizens assembly? Thank you. Thank you, Deputy. So, there are 11 minutes then for the witnesses to respond and indeed there might be a chance for further questions if the time allows. And what I will do actually is, when we are at five minutes, I will just give a little indicator so that people have a chance to gather their thoughts. So, apologies, Mr. Quinn and Chris, you got cut off the last time. You have ample opportunity in this round to respond. Okay, so I do not know who wants to. I think the questions were directed to Chris and Tara in particular. So, if you want to take that order. Thank you. And look, Paul and Rose, the questions that you have asked are right up our street. As a youth forum, young people have been talking about North-South cooperation for quite some time. As I said, our lobby has been going on for 13 years. And the young people's asks are just, the other ask that I was going to come to was about young people having an opportunity to engage directly with decision makers like yourselves. So, in the North, we have a political champions grouping that meet young people regularly. And as part of the architecture of the North-South Youth Forum, we would like to set up something similar. And perhaps have the opportunity to bring young people to this committee. I think that would be a really solid ask. Around the protocol, there's two pieces of research that I can refer to. One that took place in May of this year, as we approach the centenary of partition and the establishment of Northern Ireland. And the other one is our looking beyond borders research, which is asking young people's views on legacy matters, COVID-19 and contemporary issues. And again, perhaps unsurprisingly, young people are talking to us about the big societal issues. They're talking about COVID-19, poverty, housing, educational underachievement, discrimination. And that's not to say that the constitutional question isn't important. It still is important. However, young people are very, very focused on overcoming these big, big issues that we're facing across the island of Ireland. They're talking a lot about having a space to talk about legacy matters. They want to have a part in a conversation about a potential border poll. And they have expressed their frustration about not having a say on Brexit. With regards to the protocol, our latest survey suggests that only the statistics that I'm seeing in front of me, the big issues for young people were around human rights and climate change. So 42% of respondents to our latest survey talked about human rights being the number one issue. Only 7% of young people that responded talked about Brexit being the big issue for them. And this survey is live at the moment, I must add that. But in terms of the protocol, a lot of young people are saying to me that they don't really understand or care too much for it. I think the bigger issues for young people are discussions around identity, culture, their role in society, particularly when I think about Protestant working class, unionist working class young males, and where their role is in society right now, because I feel that that's a group that we very seldom hear. So my hope is that forums like ours, a North South Youth Forum, a civic forum, can very much help to engage people that feel disenfranchised. I'm conscious of time, so I'll pause there and allow other colleagues to come in. Tara, yes, do you want to take the next baton, Tara? Thank you very much, and I won't take up too much time. Thank you, Deputy Count Wewalsh for your kind remarks on Longford Women's Dink. I know you've been a great supporter of our work over the years, particularly on women in political life. It's quite a timely question that you ask because we recently took part in a piece of work with Joanna McMinn from Ulster University, I think funded through the Reconciliation Fund around women's views on the constitutional future of Northern Ireland and Ireland. And we've had some very interesting conversations. I think what women are looking for, I brought together two groups of women from Longford and Roscommon, and the conversations that we wish to have are around the things that matter to all of us, which are things like health and housing and education and wellbeing and the future, as you say, the future for our young people on these islands. And that was what took up the main conversation. And I think we've seen some very good outcomes from the citizens' assemblies here, you know, in relation to a number of different issues. I think it would be a fantastic start to have those structures that we have somewhere to feed these, you know, these reports into, because there are a lot of conversations happening in women's groups, a lot of conversations happening around, for example, the impact of COVID, the impact of Brexit, the protocol, people looking for clear and accurate information. The communication flows are not always great. You know, the media have their own particular angle on various different aspects of this. And we've seen, you know, a predominance in the headlines of COVID over the last 18 months, and maybe not as much about the impact of Brexit and protocol implementation and so on. So I do think as an assembly would be helpful. And as I said, I think the conversations that we're hearing are about the issues that are impacting women and their families right across the communities. So it is things like health, education, the issue of domestic violence, which has absolutely exploded in the last 18 months, and is a real concern for a lot of families and communities. So I think having a platform or a forum where those issues could be brought to the fore, North and South and discussed in a structured manner with the mechanisms then to be fed in to future policy and future discussions will be really helpful. Thank you. OK, thank you very much. I'm just not quite on the five-minute mark, but about five and a half minutes, just to note that. I don't know who else wants to come in. Does anyone else want to respond? Thank you. Tara, have you had any specific communications with the Taoiseach or the Minister around all of it? Because that is really invaluable information around your gatherings and your consultations with women's groups. So I suppose have you had any formal communication with the Taoiseach or government on that? We haven't had any formal communication, but we are feeding in. There is a new all-island women's forum that you're probably aware of that is being chaired by the National Women's Council that I'm a part of. So there are some, again, I suppose less formal structures that we are a part of, but we haven't had any formal engagement. We are participating in all of the shared island dialogues, and there is another one now on Friday on education. So where there are opportunities, we are taking them. I will put it that way. Maybe you would furnish some of the documents that you have mentioned here to the committee here. I think they would really be of interest to us as well. Thank you. Absolutely. Thank you. Mr Maskey, do you have a few questions? Do you want to direct? Is there any witness in particular that you want to respond or will I open to the panel? I just opened the panel. Yes. Very good. Is there anybody who wants to respond to Mr Maskey's questions from earlier? Dr Soros, do you want to come in? Yes. Thank you, Chair. The value of conversation is enormous in terms of anybody undertaking cooperation, dialogue is essential. One of the things that I would stress here is that we as community organisations both North and South are involved in trying to engage with all sorts of bodies and with decision makers within the Commission, UK Government, Specialised Committee, Joint Committee, Northern Ireland Executive, Irish Government, particularly through the DFA, North-South Ministerial Council. We in the Centre for Core Sports are very fortunate because we can use some of our core funding in order to undertake all of these numerous engagements. And its engagements in order to ensure that we maintain the necessary conditions for North-South cooperation as well as our East-West cooperation and relations. But many other organisations are not resourced to do that. They are involved in numerous engagements. So there's a resource question here because they're engaging in these conversations and it's taking them away for what they're actually funded to do, which is normally delivery of services, essential services, essential work. So there's a resourcing question here. But another thing that I would like to stress is conversations are great and we must keep the dialogue going continually as part of the peace and reconciliation process. But there is enormous amounts of frustration in terms of it must be conversation leading to action and we must see that action, joint action. So us working as a civic society, working with our political leaders, with political representatives and working on issues jointly and that we can see these issues being progressed. Because dialogue of itself, if there is no concrete action, if we can't see actions being undertaken, the progress being made, then it just leads to frustration and community organisations starting to withdraw. And in terms of North-South cooperation, that is an enormous risk. I think we're starting to see some indications of organisations because of all the other pressures that they have on them. And because of perhaps what they see as the changing circumstances in terms of the political landscape in support of North-South and East-West cooperation, they're starting to see pressures on them in order to focus on the work within their own jurisdiction, because there's enormous energy that's needed for it, lack of resources. And if the political conditions aren't conducive, aren't encouraging, aren't asking for community organisations to be involved in this type of cooperation, we're starting to see a risk of people going back to those days where we turn our backs on each other, because the conversations that lead to just conversation, but not to concrete action, plus the pressures on resources, that is something that we really have to be concerned about and address together. Thank you. Okay. Thank you very much. There are 30 seconds remaining if anybody wants to make a final point on this round. Maybe just to make a point there coming on from what Anthony has said. Absolutely. And I think you'll find in all of this committee what we need and what we want is a sustainable architecture to get the interface between politics and civil society right to make it count, so that we don't have kind of a whole industry even around the protocol, around other things, that we have a focused action that will really help to implement, because the implementation deficit, whether it be Stormont House, St Andrews or the Good Friday Agreement, is really where the challenge is for us all. So in everything that we are doing, it should be towards addressing that implementation deficit, because we have seen what happened, what can happen, where there are vacuums there. And it is, I suppose, a curse on all our houses that there hasn't been implementation. So wherever that can be done, I think it should. And the Irish government have a huge role to play in this, as well as the British government, and as well as committees like this. I really hope that we will have an opportunity to engage with yourselves, even individually, again, like with the Women's Link and with the Youth Forum as well, to tease out some more, some of the things, and particularly around barriers that are there that we can all collectively help to break down, so that we really, I suppose, what we are all doing is trying to address what has come from partition, and how partition has not served us across this island. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you.