Comhairle na nÓg share their views on issues affecting younger people in Fingal

The need for safer indoor and outdoor spaces for young people to use was among the many issued raised as Fingal’s Youth Council, known as Comhairle na nÓg, met in Swords this week.

Comhairle na nÓg is the official representative body for the voice of the youth of Fingal and is made up of 34 young people elected each year from schools and communities throughout the county. These youth councils operate in each of the 31 local authority areas across Ireland and enable young people aged 12 to 17 to exercise their rights in influencing decision-makers on the topics most important to them.

Coordinated by Foróige since 2018, the Fingal Comhairle na nÓg is supported by the Council’s Community Department and receives funding from the Government Department of Youth and Children. It provides young people with a platform to influence decisions in the development of local services and policies.

Meeting in the Fingal County Council Chamber, the representatives outlined the various issues that affect their peers in each of the local areas within Fingal. It follows on from their annual youth conference held last October where 89 young people from Fingal agreed on what the main topics of interest would be for their 2025 workplan. The big issues emerging at that event were school stress and education, drugs and vaping and mental health and discrimination.

The Youth Council also used this week’s forum as an opportunity to direct questions to Cllr James Humphreys, Acting Mayor of Fingal, and the Chief Executive of Fingal County Council, AnnMarie Farrelly, who praised the commitment of the Comhairle na nÓg and appreciated the valuable insights that had been shared. Encouraging more young people to engage with the council, they said it was vital their voices be heard on policies, services and issues that impact their lives.

Reflective of other issues of interest across Ireland, the topics of housing and community safety were raised, along with the perception that despite a large number of building projects going on there were little or no facilities to cater for young people.

Participants were told of a number of new Community Centres that would be a great resource for younger people, with one such facility recently opening in the Meakstown area, and construction well underway of a centre in Baldoyle. These types of facilities will cater for a wide range of community, recreational, education and sporting activities in the area, and complement the delivery of a number of new state-of-the-art recreation hubs in the county.

Alongside this, the elected delegates of the Fingal Comhairle na nÓg spoke of the stress often felt at school and particularly the extra pressure around exam time. Having more quiet spaces for study in key places such as libraries was seen as being a positive step forward.

At the last census Fingal was among the youngest counties in Ireland, with Balbriggan featuring as the youngest town in Ireland.