Presentation to An Taoiseach

January 2021

A sub-group of Comhairle na nÓg National Executive members were invited to present on aspects of their work to An Taoiseach Micheál Martin in early 2021. Here are the words of Racheal Diyaolu from Carlow:

“The jargon busting working group was established in February 2019 when we had our first meeting – we reviewed documents on climate action and identified terms that needed to be explained and could be used in the website. We got the opportunity to give our opinion on the terms and designs that could be used for the website.

We all wanted to get involved in the working group as we felt it was really important for this website to be created, as it is so difficult to tackle the topic of climate action if you don’t understand the terms. The creation of this website has made learning about climate action more accessible to both young and old people.

We were delighted that the Department of the Taoiseach Climate Action Unit reached out to us for our input on this project, as we feel young people should be consulted on such important topics. We are one of the largest demographic of people who are actively trying to participate in climate action, so it was of great importance that young people were consulted in the matter and allowed to have their say.

This website is a valuable tool that is widely accessible and useful, allowing people to become more informed and to educate themselves on climate action, in a format that is not overcomplicated but greatly informative. This website puts all the information together in one place, and as one of our young people has stated “there is no other website that I know of that has all the terms in the one place”. We feel so grateful that we were afforded the opportunity to take part in the development of such a useful tool.

We felt throughout the creation of this website, a true partnership was formed between ourselves and the Department of the Taoiseach. Everyone was willing to listen to any ideas we had and our opinions were always taken seriously. We can really see the impact we have made on the website. We would like to thank Ciara and all her associates (in the Department of the Taoiseach) for allowing us to have our voices heard and we all truly hope young people will continue to be consulted on amazing projects such as this one in the future.

Thank you”