7. 6. Welsh Conservatives Debate: A Youth Parliament

Part of the debate – in the Senedd at 4:38 pm on 19 October 2016.

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Photo of Darren Millar Darren Millar Conservative 4:38, 19 October 2016

You’re absolutely right, and there are some good examples across Wales of youth councils in operation, but, unfortunately, it’s not consistently applied across the country, in spite of the work of Young Wales and other organisations like them.

So, we’ve got this excellent track record. We were leading the way in terms of youth engagement very early on in the life of the Assembly. We invested in this and have continued to invest as an institution, as a parliament, and, indeed, the Government has also continued to invest. We all want better youth engagement, individually and as an institution, and I happen to believe that the best way of achieving that is by re-establishing a youth parliament as soon as it’s feasible to do so. I recognise there are costs involved in these sorts of decisions, but the reality is this is a price worth paying to make sure that the next generation of leaders for Wales are people who understand the democratic processes and recognise that their voices are to be heard, and I very much hope that everybody in this Chamber will be unanimous in their support of the motion before us today. Thank you.