A greater focus on youth in cabinet and a lower voting age should be a major focus for the next Government.
That's the view of Ballyjamesduff native and Director of Policy and Advocacy at the National Youth Council of Ireland, Kathyrn Walsh. The council launched their election manifesto which calls for a reduction in the voting age to 16, and increased youth representation at a cabinet level Speaking on the Joe Finnegan show earlier, Kathyrn says that young people are very political active.
"What we're saying is we want youth as a ministerial title and youth work as a core component of the Minister's brief. We're not saying it has to be a standalone Minister for Youth but what we do want is youth representation at a cabinet level in not just a tokenistic afterthought, sticking it at the end of a Department kind of way. It needs to be done in a way that looks to benefit young people and also benefit the youth work organisation who are doing trojan work every day".