Katherine Zappone to host youth seminar on Brexit implications

Young people and children’s rights campaigners are to be invited to a seminar this month to discuss the implications of the UK’s exit from the EU.

Minister for Children and Youth Affairs Katherine Zappone has organised the Brexit event at Croke Park "to hear the voices of a generation which has never experienced a hard Border on the island".

The conference follows a gathering of campaigners and rights organisations hosted by the Minister three months ago.

That event identified a number of areas of concern, including child protection, cross-Border health services and cross-Border co-operation to combat abuse.

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“Our young people and their rights must be at the very centre of our Brexit preparations,” Ms Zappone said.

“It is important that we look beyond the economic and political impacts of the UK decision and also address the social implications – of which there are many. There is now a generation which has grown up in peace and without the consequences of a hard Border on our island.”

She said the rights of those young people, as well as their protections and services, were underpinned by the Belfast Agreement, which guaranteed similar entitlements both North and South.

Mobile generation

“These must not be watered down,” Ms Zappone said.

“We must also accommodate those who have grown up with the freedom to move North-South, east-west and to a large extent across our continent – they are a mobile generation.”

The Minister has asked Comhairle na nÓg to identify young people “who will give a strong voice to the concerns surrounding Brexit”.

The event takes place on Monday, January 30th.