‘Young people get used’

‘In October 2003 I was one of the young people who participated in the recruitment process for the position of Ireland’s first Ombudsman for Children. I was nominated by my Comhairle na nÓg to represent them in the consultation day which included 70 others from all over Ireland. We were given the backgrounds and context for other Ombudsman for Children in other countries. We were then split up into smaller groups with young people of similar ages where we discussed what we felt the role of the OCO should be – writing down ideas about what we felt would be their ideal qualities and skills. At the end of the day we were asked to nominate a person who we felt could represent our group and our ideas well. I was very lucky to be chosen. In total there were 16 young people elected.

“This group were then involved in all aspects of the recruitment process. This is something that still amazes me to this day. We wrote up the role, job description, designed and participated in the recruitment process, were in the media campaign (I recorded a radio advert), we shortlisted the candidates and then put them through three stages of interviews. These included an improv situation, an interview by a panel of only young people, and an interview by two young people and three adults. Each stage included young people. It was quite remarkable really as there were 15 young people and three adults involved in the interview process, yet we all had an equal say in the final decision.

“I was involved in the first stage of the improv situation. Basically there were seven of us who each took on a character of a young person who we felt might approach the Ombudsman. We then brought in the candidate and asked them to act the way they would in that situation. We all gave the candidate our problem and asked them for a solution. I played a very difficult young person who was tired of all the attention going on the others, so I continuously made it difficult for the candidate. I’ll never forget some of the responses: I was actually told to shut up by one candidate and then they turned their back and ignored me.

“I still remember Emily Logan’s interview and the feeling as she left the room. I knew she was the one we were looking for. She was respectful and made everyone feel included and listened to. When she left there were big smiles from everyone in the room.

“When she got the job she asked us back to help with the set-up of the office. We were involved in the office layout and information leaflets. We then discussed our own roles. From this we set up the Youth Advisory Panel (YAP) and continued to give our input into the way the OCO ran. In 2006 we decided that YAP was to represent all young people from Ireland and it was only fair to share the experiences we had, so organised a new recruitment day following a similar format we went through.

“As a young person I attended many consultation days where young people were used as tokens. In one event I was actually sitting beside a senior government representative who was meant to be representing young people and he didn’t even talk to us. He sat there pretending to write notes and then had the booklet upside down acting as if he was reading it – just for the camera. I remember seeing the newspaper article afterwards and feeling used. He was portrayed as a great man for working alongside young people yet he didn’t even try to pretend he was listening to us. This practice was and is so common – young people get used all the time by people in positions of power. Their voices are always lost and falsely represented. This angered me then but infuriates me now as there is no reason why young people shouldn’t be included. The OCO showed that they really listened, which in turn produced great consequences for all involved.”

In conversation with John Holden