Dáil Éireann Debate, Thursday - 9 May 2024
48. Deputy Aindrias Moynihan asked the Minister for Rural and Community Development for the up-to-date position on the recommendation of the National Rural Youth Assembly, Summary Report 2023 to provide a community liaison person who would facilitate contact between younger people in the community and Government bodies; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [20732/24]
View answerOur Rural Future, the whole-of-Government policy for the sustainable development of rural Ireland, committed to establishing an “annual Rural Youth Assembly to allow young people living in rural Ireland to make an on-going contribution to identifying and influencing policy issues that impact on them and their future.’
My Department holds lead responsibility for this commitment and has established a Rural Youth Assembly under the umbrella of the National Youth Assembly of Ireland. The Assembly provides a valuable forum for young people from rural areas to discuss issues of importance to them, including the challenges and opportunities associated with living, studying and socialising in rural Ireland.
The inaugural Rural Youth Assembly took place online on 16 November 2021, in partnership with the Department of Children, Equality, Diversity, Integration and Youth’s National Participation Office, followed by the first in person event in Collins Barracks in July 2022.
The 2023 Assembly took place last October at Dublin Castle and discussed the theme of Civic Participation of Young People in Rural Ireland. The 2023 Rural Youth Assembly Report, which is available on my Department’s website, details the proposals and recommendations made on the day.
The 2023 report also contains an update on the proposals and recommendations made at the previous Assembly in 2022, one of which centred on a Community Liaison Person to facilitate contact between the youth in the community and the Government bodies. The update confirms that the Public Participation Network (PPN) provides an appropriate structure designed to accommodate the full and diverse range of members including youth representatives.
PPNs, which are in place at local authority level, are specifically designed to;
• Facilitate the participation and representation of communities in a fair, equitable and transparent manner through the environmental, social inclusion, community and voluntary sectors on decision making bodies;
• Strengthen the capacity of communities and of the environmental, social inclusion, community and voluntary groups to contribute positively to the community in which they reside/participate; and
• Provide information relevant to the environmental, social inclusion, community and voluntary sector and acts as a hub around which information is distributed and received.
PPNs provide representation for the community sector in local authority policymaking structures, giving local volunteers a greater say in local government decisions which affect their own communities. Where community representation is required on local authority committees, such as Strategic Policy Committees or Local Community Development Committees etc., it must be sourced through the PPN.
In order to ensure diverse input by community groups into the decision-making process, it is essential that PPNs represent a range of perspectives from the community sector. To this end, the Department has commissioned research on barriers to involvement in PPNs which will explore the demographic characteristics of groups involved in all 31 PPNs. Youth participation will form one strand of the research, and one of the project deliverables is to make recommendations on developing a youth engagement strategy aimed at increasing the number of young people involved in PPNs.
