Cormac helps give teenagers voice in debating chamber

Cormac helps give teenagers voice in debating chamber

5 February 2020

THE views of South Down teenagers and the issues which matter most to them were revealed at a special presentation at Newry, Mourne and Down Council’s debating chamber last week.

Cormac Savage — a member of the Youth Parliament for South Down — lauded by Baroness Margaret Ritchie as the constituency’s Greta Thunberg, launched the results of his Make Your Mark consultation which sought the views of local peers.

Cormac is a 16 year-old from Downpatrick who is studying for his A-Levels at St Patrick’s Grammar in the town and took up the mantle as South Down’s Member of the Youth Parliament (MYP) a year ago and has since spoken in the House of Commons.

Baroness Ritchie, who was the guest speaker at last week’s event, was joined by the local authority’s vice chairman Terry Andrews.

Make Your Mark is a UK-wide ballot run by the UK Youth Parliament which seeks to discover what issues are most important to young people. The ballot was divided into three sections, UK, Devolved and Local.

In South Down, 47.2% of over 2,000 young respondents said that protecting the environment was the most important UK issue, with almost 22% in favour of lowering the voting age to 16.

Other key issues were tackling hate crime (13.4%), welcoming refugees (11%) and making UN Convention Rights of the Child law (6.8%).

Under devolved issues, 44.8% of young people said mental health was the most important issue  when compared to child poverty (17.4%), ending knife crime (17.4%), curriculum for life (14.1%) and stopping street harassment (6.3%).

Over 1,600 young people responded to this part of the ballot and 24% of responses were environmental issues — ranging from dealing with erosion at Ballyhornan to improving school eco-councils to introducing more recycling points. 

Overall, the top five biggest individual local issues were stopping the amalgamation of St Patrick’s Grammar with St Mary’s and De La Salle High Schools in Downpatrick (223 votes). Other local issues highlighted included tackling litter (180 votes), mental health (155 votes), drug misuse (59 votes) and protecting the local environment (51 votes). These were followed by building a bridge between Strangford and Portaferry (40 votes).

The results were detailed in a report written by Cormac, who said he was “delighted to have been able to recognise the dedication of young volunteers across South Down in helping their peers have their voices heard.” 

He added: “Organising Make Your Mark for the past two years has been a challenge each time but one which I enjoy greatly and am privileged to be faced with. It’s now time for politicians and decision makers to act upon the issues raised by local young people”. 

Cormac’s role in seeking out the opinions of his peers was praised by Baroness Ritchie, former South Down MP.

She said: “Congratulations are due to Cormac for his tenacity, ingenuity, hard work, enthusiasm and attention to detail. He is an example to all of us of what a campaigner should be doing.   

“In many ways Cormac, you are the Greta Thunberg of South Down. You must be able to use that capacity to challenge your peers, government departments and even your teachers to improve the world we all live and recreate in. 

“You also need to challenge our communities to awaken and re-engage with ordinary politics in a way in which people have resonated with the problems presented by Brexit.”

Focusong on the local issues, Baroness Ritchie described these as “dominant topics” that occupy young people, highlighting the need for investment of resources and the deployment of new and different policy directives to accommodate the challenges of the geographical area, given the myriad of problems facing our young people.

Regarding the issues raised under the devolved government category, Baroness Ritchie said she wanted a copy of the findings sent to Ministers in the NI Executive and to the chairs of the relevant Assembly Committees “to identify policy and spending priorities for them in the Programme for Government and Budget.”

Last week’s event was also attended by local councillors Dermot Curran, Patrick Brown, Oonagh Hanlon and Harold McKee. 

Baroness Ritchie and Cllr Andrews presented the school awards to the teachers who co-ordinated the vote in their respective schools and they included Mrs Mairead Arkins (St Mary’s High),

Mrs Jackie Bogues (St Malachy’s High, Castlewellan), Miss Aine McMullan (St Patrick’s Grammar Downpatrick) and Year 14 pupil Clódagh Bogues who single-handedly co-ordinated the vote in her school, collected Ballynahinch Assumption Grammar School’s award.

Down High and De La Salle High schools also took part in the consultation, but representatives were unable to attend last week’s event.