Meeting with Irish Minister in the Dáil

Before they finished up for their final term in primary school, Rachel’s sixth class group were invited to visit the Dáil (Ireland’s parliament) in order to meet with Ossian Smyth, a Government Minister, and one of our local representative TDs Neasa Hourigan (Teachta Dála in Irish, meaning a member of parliament). Both Ossian and Neasa are TDs from Ireland’s Green Party.

The visit came about due to one of the class CEPNET projects. Ciara, Freya and Siún had emailed a series of questions to Government departments asking about how environmental targets were going to be met and how young people were to be more included in these processes.

Instead of having an email response, we were invited to meet with the both Ossian and Neasa, so that the girls could ask the questions in person. As well as spending time with these politicians, having some refreshments, the class also were brought on a tour of the Dáil and Seanad. We got to ask plenty of questions about the functioning of our democracy and to see leader’s question time in action.

More information is available in the Student Project section of the website, where there is a video of Neasa talking about how young people can be better included in managing a response to the climate crisis.