Dáil na nÓg: Leanne Hyland tells of her experience at Dáil na nÓg.
I am 15 and I live in Cabra West. Saturday was my first time ever to go to Dáil na nÓg. I really enjoyed it. I felt that all the crew (adults working at the Dáil), young people and even the Minister for Children listened to my opinions. All of the young people got a chance to say what they felt needed to be said.
We discussed facilities for young people in my group and I said that there should be horse stables in Cabra for the amount of horses that are owned by young people.
There are no facilities to graze or to house the horses - with the result you have young people keeping horses on the railway and out in their back gardens.
I also said that Cabra needs more professional youth workers and drug counsellors to work with the growing amount of young people using drugs. This problem keeps on increasing and will have to be dealt with.
The reason I am in Comhairle na nÓg and Dáil na nÓg is because of my youth club, which is Ventry Park Youth Club. It is a great club and is run by very good leaders.
Near the end of Dáil na nÓg, we got to do questions and answers. Whoever wanted to ask questions got the chance to ask them. All the questions were answered by Government officials and the Minister for Children.
There were about 200 delegates at Dáil na nÓg and loads of adults helping on the crew. The crew and young people at Dáil na nÓg were very nice and approachable.
Dáil na nÓg was a great experience and I really enjoyed the day. Everybody got a fair say.
I met new friends from different counties and I hope to keep in touch with them.