I’d like to welcome this statement today. When I was elected in 2007 as the then youngest Member—Jack and Steffan have taken that from me since then—I immediately started campaigning for a real youth parliament for Wales. I respected the fact that Funky Dragon was in operation, but I wanted something parliamentary in this Parliament, so that there was a separate structure and so that young people could feel that they could be more critical of Government rather than them being funded directly by Government. They could then scrutinise Government and criticise it, and I very much hope that the confident young people elected to this parliament will be able to do that.

This isn’t a negative concern, but I did want to ask the Llywydd a question on political parties. When I stood as president of the student union in Aberystwyth, there was no requirement for young people to state which party they were involved with. On occasions, some people won elections that perhaps they wouldn’t have won if they had put a party name forward on the voting slip. So, I would like to understand: if there are young people who are members of political parties—which I think is a positive thing because they are clearly politically active—how are we going to be aware of that? How will those young people be made aware of the political or ideological agenda that is driving some of these young people and encouraging them to stand? I think that’s important, so that young people who are voting online understand exactly what they are voting for.

On the issue of online voting, I’d be interested to learn what we, as a Parliament here, could learn so that we can institute online voting in future. I brought a short debate forward, years ago now, in this Parliament, on trying to change the way we deal with voting in order to encourage more people to vote in an online system. After all, we bank online, and we do a great deal online, but we can’t vote online for this Parliament and this Parliament’s elections.

The final question I have: I’ve heard what you said in terms of working locally, but I want to understand more about that, because I think what’s very exciting about this opportunity is how these young elected members can work with local groups, and work with environmental groups or local campaign groups, in order to inspire young people in future to stand as members of the youth parliament, and also to think about how they could then develop and stand for this Parliament. What’s important is that this Parliament has diversity in terms of age and all sorts of other things, so that we can be strong representatives of what is happening here in Wales, and the same is true for the youth parliament. Therefore, I support what’s happening here, and I hope it’ll be successful.