Official Report: Minutes of Evidence

Mr Speaker: Before we begin today's proceedings, I would like to welcome you all here to the Assembly Chamber to mark International Day of Older People and to thank you all for accepting my invitation to participate in this unique event. I am delighted to preside over this debate between members of the Age Sector Platform and the Northern Ireland Youth Forum.

The use of the Assembly Chamber is very rarely permitted for business other than plenary sessions, but I wanted to do it for this event to highlight that the Assembly and the wider community should respect the older generation as a valuable part of our society and to encourage the commitment of members of the Youth Forum.

Sixty-one of the Members of the current Assembly who sit on these Benches are over 50 — and you might be surprised that I am one of them — while only 20 are under 40 — and you might be surprised that I am not one of them — [Laughter.]

Today's event is a more balanced forum, but the principle is the same: people coming from different perspectives to discuss and tackle issues that affect the entire community.

Older people have a wealth of experience and skills, but recognising that is equally an issue for future generations. As a society with a troubled history, the older generation, including people like me, also have a duty not to simply pass on our baggage and attitudes but to encourage the younger generation to move on and make the most of the future. In other words, our discourse should be dominated by a post-agreement narrative rather than a counterproductive litany of pre-1998 events.

This debate is a real opportunity to debate and discuss the best way of ensuring that our younger people can benefit from the accrued wisdom of our older people. International Day of Older People gives us the perfect occasion to recognise our older people and to demonstrate ways in which they can pass on the knowledge and wisdom that they have gained over their lifetimes.

I hope that you will all enjoy your time here and find the experience valuable. I also hope that those of you who are speaking in the debate can relax and not feel in any way inhibited by the formality of the surroundings.

Mr Speaker: We now turn to the formal business of today, which is a motion on the contribution that different generations can make to society. We have up to one hour for the debate. The proposer will have six minutes to propose the motion and six minutes to make a winding-up speech. All other participants will have up to three minutes to speak. If that is clear, we shall proceed.

Mr Norman Meharry (Age Sector Platform): I beg to move

Good morning, everybody. This proposal sounds like a call for peace between factions. It is implying that we can spoil our experience of life for each other through division and attrition or that we can work together for our mutual intergenerational benefit — the old win-win solution. There is another implication: that younger and older people need one another, and, of course, we do. The older were once where the younger are now. They have felt what younger people feel, and need it be said that, sooner than might be imagined, those younger people will be here.

Older and younger do have commonality, apart from being fellow Homo sapiens and citizens. Take the value of time, for instance. Society needs charities and who gives generously of their time to make those work? Volunteers — that is who. Those volunteers, you will find, are largely younger people, who are not yet set on a career path, and those oldies who have packed a career in and are now so-called retired.

The key words in this proposal are "skills", "experience", "value", "respect" and the word that came to haunt a certain Maggie Thatcher — "society". The minefield term in this proposal is, I think, "can be transferred". If that turns out to be advice or, more euphemistically, guidance, I feel a chill coming on. So many older people get themselves a bad press, especially with younger people, by defaulting to passing on unrequested advice.

Oscar Wilde said:

This is about transferring skills — an obvious essential, of course — in some unpatronising and uncondescending way, to make available old oldie experience. After all, what is living history? If making it available in an honest, empathetic way and offering it for the enlightenment of others are really achievable, all may yet be well with this world.

Among the jobs I did in over 40 years of working life, I was mostly a teacher in a primary school. I was surrounded by very young people. Their fresh take on the world, which was a world new to them, kept we oldies, who were the staff, enthusiastic in our endeavour, devoted to our career choice and hard-working for the youngsters' behalf. We were better teachers for that quality of encounter. Thus, here is a certain intergenerational dynamic benefiting everybody.

I was then 27 years old and thought that everyone in their 40s was ancient and a dinosaur. Doing dinner duty one lunchtime, having sung 'Happy Birthday' to a nine-year-old and having asked his new age, he, in turn, asked mine. I tried it on a bit and said, "I'm 21." He gasped and said, "You're very old."

What was remarkable about working in education was that older and younger people worked together, feeding off each other. I can remember how, when I was a pupil, certain aged teachers could communicate the essential wonder of their specialism and sew it in me. I was someone who was not mathematical at all and would go on to lift a Bachelor of Arts, yet would study physics to A level successfully in school all because a gifted teacher could teach his subject even to those like me who had no natural proclivity for it. That teacher was a long way past 27.

Schools are a remarkable example of youngsters and oldies working in combo, where the former are skilling up to take their place in society and the latter, the oldies, are fulfilling an essential role for those future society members. Can anything be more important? Society, by its very definition, is a hotchpotch of many things, including all those life stages that Willie Shakespeare described in the 'Seven Ages of Man'. A healthy society must value and respect its make-up and love itself and, in some utopian state, accept, in a valuing and respectful way, the varied contributions to the greatness of the sum of its parts.

Much of this and its aspects will be explored and debated by our participants today. I recommend this motion to the House.

Ms Bronagh Hughes (Northern Ireland Youth Forum): Thank you, Mr Speaker. The motion calls on both older and younger people alike to:

However, the motion makes provisions only for the skills and experiences of older people. Whilst I doubt that anyone truly believes that young people have absolutely nothing to learn from the old, it seems to me that there is a fundamental lack of respect for the skills and contributions that can be made by young people.

Our young people are intelligent, innovative, increasingly tolerant, open-minded, tech-savvy, artistic, imaginative and ambitious. Our pupils have the highest GCSE and A-level results in the entire United Kingdom. Right now, today, a 17-year-old girl from County Down is representing the UK at the G(irls)20 Summit in Istanbul. The Northern Ireland members of the Youth Parliament work and campaign tirelessly to ensure that their voices are heard after being voted for by no fewer than 11,000 of their peers. I suppose that what I want to know is how many of these young people do the people who live here have to meet before they finally stop viewing us as the exception. Where is our respect? Where in our society is the value of our skills and experiences being recognised?

Anti-age discrimination legislation refuses to protect those who are under the age of 16. University funding is being slashed whilst cost creeps upwards. Young people are three times more likely to be unemployed than those who are older. Two thirds of our young people wish to spend their futures outside Northern Ireland. Where is our respect?

Young people are paying an economic price — and it is a costly one — for mistakes that they did not make. I am 17 years old. In 2008, I was 10 years old and in P6. I had no concept of an economy, yet the fallout is shaping my future; cuts at every turn, austerity, welfare reform and a Government who are in seemingly constant deadlock. Is it any wonder that our most skilled, intelligent and innovative young people want nothing to do with this place? Young people are not being valued. They are not being respected. Our skills and experiences are being stifled rather than cultivated.

I call on this House to support this motion but to recognise that mutual respect means respecting young people as well.

Ms Anne Watson (Age Sector Platform): Unfortunately, I do not agree with that. I think that young people are respected and I think that older people need to be respected as well.

I personally found that, as my children grew, I got to the stage where I was either Dumbo or Einstein, depending on what their problem was. If they could sort it out themselves, I was of no account, because they were doing it — not always right, but they were doing it. If it was too big a problem, Einstein appeared and helped them to sort the problem out. I do not think that that changes down the years. Young people are very self-sufficient, but they still need older people.

I also think that older people have a lot to learn from younger people, and that is coming true now. My grandson is the one I go to if my computer has a problem. I may not understand what he is trying to tell me, but I remember that, when he was five, he brought a note home from school one day, and I said, "I can't read it. I haven't got my glasses." "Don't worry, nanny", he said, "when mummy comes in, she reads the big words, and she'll tell you what it says."

So, it is a circle that goes round and round, and I am glad to say that older people, I hope, are always prepared to help younger people, and I would like to think that younger people are not too self-sufficient to go to older people and ask for advice, because, believe it or not, sometimes older people do know something.

Ms Rosie MacDonald-Hill (Northern Ireland Youth Forum: I am a member of the Northern Ireland Commissioner for Children and Young People's youth panel, which is made up of young people from across Northern Ireland representing different religions, abilities, disabilities and ethnic groups. The Government are consulting on anti-discrimination legislation that will discriminate against every child under 16. We believe this to be unfair and hope you will challenge this.

This famous quote from George Orwell's 'Animal Farm' came to mind when we heard that the NI Executive were proposing anti-age discrimination legislation to cover goods, facilities and services (GFS). This will discriminate against 21% of the population in Northern Ireland. The legislation would protect everyone from age discrimination when using GFS; for example, medical treatment, using retail services, accessing public transport and educational services — unless you are under 16 years of age.

Age is the very factor that unites older and younger people. It makes us more vulnerable than adults. Younger people should be receiving special protective measures. However, at present, they are at risk of being discriminated against further. We do not understand why 380,000 children and young people, who Government themselves describe as vulnerable, are being deliberately excluded from this protection. NICCY has commissioned a legal opinion and produced policy papers that highlight that there is no rationale, no evidence, to validate the exclusion of under-16s.

As a panel of young people, we believe this legislation to be morally wrong to exclude under-16 year olds. We find it illogical that an anti-discrimination law would contradict itself by being itself discriminatory towards more than 20% of the population. We, the NICCY youth panel, are strongly urging the reconsideration of the proposal. Our Government must make sure that the legislation is extended to cover everyone in Northern Ireland. We hope that you agree with our position. Thank you.

Ms Hilary Reid (Age Sector Platform): I would like to begin by thanking you for the opportunity to speak in favour of this motion. It is a true honour and privilege to do so in this historic setting. It may surprise you, Mr Speaker, to learn that the idea behind the motion is not a new one. In fact, almost 2,000 years ago, the Apostle Paul wrote to Titus in Crete to urge the older women to help and support the young women in their marriages through the experience they had gained in their own lives.

Having spent 35 years living and working in England, France and Germany, I returned to Northern Ireland in 2001. Although I am a qualified French and German teacher, as well as a teacher of English as a foreign language, I took a job working and using my language knowledge in a call centre. The first contract was with Tourism Ireland, which came out of the Good Friday Agreement, with the aim of marketing all of Ireland for tourists. There, I met and worked with many fine young people from different countries. I found the experience very interesting and we learned from one another. I continued working after retirement, meeting many more young people.

Even working in Germany, I did not forget my roots. I co-authored a book on Northern Ireland — 'Northern Irish Images' — to give young German students of English a balanced view of the situation here. The book was used for over 15 years in German schools. So, there too, I was able to use my skills and experience to assist the younger generation in a rewarding way. I will continue to do so, hopefully making a difference in the lives of the young men and women that I encounter today. I encourage my fellow Members who speak to do the same.

It is, however, a two-way street. Younger people have a greater understanding of the technological revolution, and I ask them to respect our possible lack of ability in dealing with new technology. Please, when giving instructions about how devices work, can you speak slowly and maybe repeat the information. Sometimes, it is too fast for us to follow, so allow us time to ask questions. We can each benefit from the expertise of the other.

In conclusion, therefore, I commend the motion to the House.

Ms Beth McGann (Northern Ireland Youth Forum): I agree with what Ms Anne Watson said: young people like me do not really know the meaning of age. Maybe because we think that have eternity in front of us or maybe it is just the fact that we have no time to become old.

I have learned that our seniors and the older generation are the ones who care about our communities and they are the backbone of volunteer programmes and service organisations. I have also learned that the younger generation tend to be selfish and do not make such commitments to help bring something to society or themselves. For me, and probably on behalf of all the younger generation sitting here, spending time with the seniors and the older generation makes me realise that not all old people are grouchy or moody. In fact, I have found out that I can join in with them and make the most of life.

The older community and generation can guide us along the right path in life. Of course everyone is going to make mistakes along the way, but they can be there to bring us back up to where we need to be. They have gained more experience than us in life and have been there at one point or another. We come from a completely different generation that does not want to listen to rules. We simply believe that we know best. Sooner or later you will grow out of that and think back to the time when your parent or grandparent told you to do something differently, gave you advice on what to do, but you did not do it.

Following along from that, it tells me that we, being the future of this world, should be prepared for tomorrow. The lessons learned and the experience gained by older people should be considered an asset rather than a waste of time to listen to. Similarly, the older generation, through flexibility, should accept alternate thinking. This acceptance and understanding will bring peace to the two generations, without hampering a prosperity that asks for changes on the basis of experience and sometimes experiments without experience.

Mr Willie Carville (Age Sector Platform): Who can disagree with the motion? I actually think that I should be over on the other side of the House because I do not feel old, but, unfortunately, I am. I, like many people who have spoken, have spent a working lifetime in education. I was a pupil, a student and a teacher. I was a teacher trade union official and am now a school governor. So, I am a bit of a fan of education.

However, the education that I have spoken about is the formal sector. There is another sector, the education of life, and I am a fan of lifelong learning as well. While a teacher, I was always aware that the vast amount of education did not take place in my classroom. It took place at home, outside school and around the kitchen table, where most of us learned. I am not too sure whether people sit down round kitchen tables any more. It is a shame if they do not.

Today's sum of knowledge that we all benefit from is the product of the skills and experience of all the past and present generations. In fact, my father used to say, "It is a bad day if you do not learn something". Let us hope that today is not one of those bad days. We all transfer our skills and knowledge to the young, and the young transfer their skills and knowledge to the old, although sometimes it does not feel very successful, as my colleague has already said. Generations must respect each other and not fear each other. I really do not feel afraid of you people over there. I know that people used to fear me, but I have retired now.

I have a word of warning, however, for the young. Not everything that my generation and older generations have done was necessarily good. We have to learn from our mistakes as well as from our successes. I warn people not to be conned into continuing the futile, the old, the insoluble and the unimportant battles that people sometimes encourage us to get involved in. Look to the future, not to the past. It is in your hands. Do not miss the opportunity.

Mr Alex Huston (Northern Ireland Youth Forum): Thank you for the opportunity to speak today. I will start with a brief story. Yesterday in work, by some strange collection of events, I was challenged to an arm wrestle by an 81-year-old customer. [Laughter.]

It gets better than that. I thought, "OK, I will give this man a go. The customer is always right." I tried, but I could not beat the strength of that man. He could not beat me, but I could not beat him. Eventually, I let him win. What does that say, apart from the fact that I probably need to go to the gym more often? For me, it is a very simple example that the strength of the years cannot beat the strength of youth, and the strength of youth cannot beat the strength of the years. We have to work together on this.

Many people on this side of the House were born before the Good Friday Agreement. In my case, I was four years old. None of us remembers what happened pre-1998. We know about it and we have learned about it, but we are not responsible for it and we were not involved in it. Neither are we responsible for the elected officials who have made Northern Ireland a bit of a mess of late. I, and most of us on this side, did not have the opportunity to vote for them. Neither are we responsible for the debt, the austerity and the future that lies ahead for us. We cannot be responsible for it; it was before we were old enough to vote. As Bronagh said, we were 10 years old when the economic crisis started. We cannot be held responsible for that, but we can help to take part in a solution.

I believe that, together with the experience of those who have seen the past and have been involved in the past, and with the experience and enthusiasm of the younger generation on this side of the House who understand the past and have learned about it, but who were not involved in it and who are the future, we can build a brighter and better Northern Ireland for the future. Thank you very much.

Ms Jenny Methven (Age Sector Platform): I am already very impressed by my colleagues on the other side of the House speaking without notes. However, I am afraid that I am going to refer to my notes.

As a former teacher and social worker working with young people, I have seen the situations that children have to live in, but also the amazing things that they can do and how they can develop with training and experience. I believe strongly that valuing others and mutual respect is a given in any society.

I would like to focus my comments on skills and experience, which is mentioned in the motion. In considering the transfer of skills and experience, I came to the conclusion, in reading the motion, that it tends to suggest the job market situation. Otherwise, where is the mention of knowledge, wisdom and general life experience? Considering only skills and experience brings me to what I believe is the nub of the problem and the reason why there are often difficulties in that intergenerational communication between young and old, especially in contemporary Western society. Money has become the measure of all things. We are all measured as economic units, not as human beings. Our humanity is demeaned and not even valued. Our only use is how much we can contribute to the economy. It is much easier to marginalise the old if we focus on the economic issues. Older people are quite often seen as an economic burden. Technology and systems are changing, so the skills and experience of older people are perhaps less useful. Younger people are told that, because we are living older and longer, they will have to work harder and longer to support us. Similarly, young people are now required to build up massive levels of debt to fund their education, which most of us got for free. For your housing, for old age, so that is so not right.

Any society that seeks to divide its members in such a way, creating that fear of either the old or the young, is morally bankrupt and offers its citizens little or no hope, but, by young and old uniting our forces, we can hope to build a better society. If society was able to call on its elders in the same way as traditional societies do for advice, support and guidance, I believe that we would be able to work in a stronger society.

Something to consider is that we all have something to share with each other and we should not be held within the view of burdens and difficulties that wider media and other settings give us.

Mr Jordan Brownlee (Northern Ireland Youth Forum): I totally agree with the lady across the room. Yes, both groups can work together through, for example, youth work. Older people can pass on their experiences of, for example, youth work, drug awareness, mental health and voluntary work. I also think that older people can pass on their life experiences and advice to younger people based on their experiences when they were younger. I can see why people would not agree with me, as some adults would not want to work with younger people. For example, older people have a mindset and they stereotype younger people. Older people get labelled by younger people, and younger people get labelled by older people all the time. It is important that both groups work together so that the labels and discrimination can be removed and life experiences can be shared for real education and learning to take place.

She was saying about money. Young people are always getting discriminated against, even in charges for bus fares. An adult is classed as 18, but you are charged an adult fare on a bus from age 16. There is also an issue with driving insurance. How can a young person be expected to pay for all their driving lessons, which cost about £25 a lesson, the theory test, the driving test and then £3,500-odd a year for a car when they are only getting £40-odd a week, if even, in tech?

Young people should have a choice about what they learn in school when they are younger instead of being forced to take subjects that have no role in their future careers. After all, our young people will be the ones who look after older people when they are too old to care for themselves. We should have equal respect.

Mr Nick Menhinick (Age Sector Platform): Thank you, Mr Speaker. I would like to change tack a little bit. We have been talking about respect but I would like to use the word "tolerance". We should all be tolerant of our respective age groups; that is a very important word. I will give you a couple of examples of how tolerance can work.

Allegedly, we live in a so-called age of austerity. Really? We are playing at austerity. To have experienced real austerity, you would have to have been brought up just after the war in the 40s and the 50s. For my generation here and my parents' generation, that was austerity. We would have given our right arm to go to places like Tesco, Sainsburys and Marks and Spencer with all the goodies that are there. No way. We had coupons and we had one shop that we could go to for your meat and bread. We even had bread rationing in 1947. My parents would have given their right arm to have what we have now. Think about that.

I will tell you a wee story. I had coupons and I had my pocket money, which was a penny or a penny ha'penny, whatever it was. That was real money. That is a joke; I am sorry. [Laughter.]

I went into the sweet shop and produced my coupons but the man said, "Sorry son, that is only valid for next month. You have already spent your coupons." I had the money but no coupons. I remember thinking, even at the age of three or four, "who won the war?" I thought we did. Well, maybe we did, but we certainly lost the peace. No, folks; the two generations in front of us must really remember what we went through. Please, tolerate us in our grumpiness.

Now, there are two sides to every story. The boot is on the other foot. Every Friday and Saturday night, we are told, there is mayhem in the cities of the United Kingdom, in London, Glasgow, Edinburgh, Bristol and even Belfast. There are young people causing mayhem, getting drunk, throwing up and doing other nasty things and being rude to the police. Hold on a minute; what were we doing in the 60s, I ask my wrinkly friends here? Did we not have fun? I know what I was doing in the 60s. I was not teaching but I was in the advertising industry in London, and we were told that it was the most fun that we could have with our clothes on, and I can tell you that we had fun. I can remember having some conversations with members of the Metropolitan Police. I think that our generation invented fun — drugs, rock n' roll and that other thing that we are not allowed to talk about. We did have fun, didn't we? Now, we try to blame the younger people here for having their fun. We caused a wee bit of mayhem; I am sure that we did. I will not say that I did, because that would be incriminating myself.

Does anyone in this group remember the Mods, the rockers and the Teddy Boys? Come on, let's get real, folks. Let us have a bit of tolerance, please. Live and let live. Someone has already talked about a two-way street. It really is a two-way street. If we can tolerate each other, respect will follow. Only then can we embrace each other's ethos. Therefore, Mr Speaker, I commend the motion to the House.

Mr William Winchester (Northern Ireland Youth Forum): Thank you, Mr Speaker. I am going to start by being controversial for being on this side. There has been a lot of talk about the technological era. I feel that it has made young people quite lazy. We can rest on our laurels because the computers will fix it. I have a little story to tell. I follow sports quite a bit and I scroll through all the sports news. I found a story about a 105-year-old man who broke his own world record for sprinting. When one thinks of a 105-year-old, you think, "that is really old and they should not be sprinting". A young person is not going to go out and test themselves to that degree. A 105-year-old broke his own record three years on; that is a work ethic that, I feel, should be passed down and sometimes is not.

I can admit that I am quite lazy. I could go into work and quite happily sit and earn a wage for doing very little. I am not going to complain, especially when I am an economic number like everyone else in the room and it helps to earn a wage no matter how you earn it. As you said, an economic number is not everything and there is a wealth of life experience on both sides of the room, but largely on that side. As Nick said, you have done it all before. They partied before we did and their parents partied before them. That is a generational thing and is not brand new to our or their generation. It is as old as time, and I feel that we have to respect that they were in our position and there is a lot that we can learn from them. They have seen it all and done it all.

When it comes to the political situation, as Alex said, there is a lot that we have to deal with that we did not cause and were not part of. I was still a child when the Good Friday Agreement was signed, as, I think, everyone on this side of the House was. Although we are criticised for not voting, I feel that it is a choice among most young people. We do not want to vote for the politicians. They caused the problem, so why should we vote for them and continue the problem? We want change. It is not that we are lazy or do not how to vote or do not know what to do, we just chose not to vote. We have that choice. That is a right that we have and everyone else has had that right. It should not be a big deal that we do not vote. There are campaigns to get votes at 16, but I do not think that it will make much of difference if there is no change. With the older generation, there are a lot of stereotypes, and there can be young people who rest on their laurels, who are quite critical of the older generation and say that it is not their problem and they cannot do anything about it. I just want to remind everyone that it is a choice.

Mr Speaker: I call Miss Margaret McGreevy.

Mrs Margaret McGreevy (Age Sector Platform): Mrs Margaret McGreevy, thank you, Mr Speaker.

I have to agree with a lot that has been said on both sides of the House, and I am in full agreement with the motion. I want to introduce something that I read about recently that is happening in Japan and that could possibly be introduced here.

Japan is very much further advanced than we are, in the amount of people who live there and in technology. What they have put forward, which has been very successful, is a scheme to adopt an older person. I will not saying granny or granddad, because they are not necessarily your granny or granddad, but an older person or someone from that new generation that has come along, "the seniors". We feel as if they have come from Mars at times.

In Japan, because of the economics of sending young people to university, if you adopt an older person and spend the most precious thing of all with them, your time, you will get a reduction in your university fees. It is working out to help both generations. The older person maybe has no one left from their family, and they have somebody to come in, not necessarily to cook for them, but just to spend a bit of time with them. The younger person can sit and do their books or whatever with them and get the benefit of both.

Finances in Northern Ireland are suffering. We are having cuts in our universities, which I do not approve of. I am from the generation that had to work full time at the age of 14. There was no university for me, so I am very much in favour of them. If that scheme operated in Northern Ireland, we maybe would not have the cuts in our universities. More of you could go to university, and it would also help our generation. We would not be as lonely and might not be as dependent on as many drugs, which would maybe mean a cut in our health budget. I would like to think that that could be piloted in Northern Ireland. We are a smaller country, so why not give it a go? I am very much in favour of the motion.

Mr Speaker: Subject to correction, I call Miss Rebecca Connolly to conclude and make the winding-up speech on the debate.

Miss Rebecca Connolly (Northern Ireland Youth Forum): Thank you, Mr Speaker. I think that this is the first time that the Assembly has ever taken part in mature debate and agreed on something — [Laughter.]

— and that highlights that our politicians — sorry, Mr Speaker — still have a lot to learn.

It is hard to make a winding-up speech when everyone agrees. When I was first told that I would make the winding-up speech, I thought that I would have to wind people up — I love to be the wind-up merchant and play off different ideas — but, from what I have heard today, we all pretty much agree that we need mutual respect for one another.

Norman mentioned that old people seem to get a lot of bad press. What about the bad press that young people get? You are always opening the paper and seeing, "Young delinquents on street corner binge-drinking". It is very rare that we open the papers and see, "Young people doing are this. Look how fantastic". I am part of an organisation called the UK Youth Parliament. At the minute, we are running our annual consultation, where we reach out to young people and ask for their opinions on matters that they feel are important to them. This year, our aim is to reach one million young people. I have been ringing up as many newspapers as I can, but they are not interested. Newspapers do not want to hear about the great things that young people are doing. They do not want to hear that young people are taking time out of their lives to reach one million young people to get young people's voices heard. They want to hear about young delinquents; they want something that is a non-story. I am not denying that old people get bad press. We all do. However, the press are very hard on young people. We all need to remember that.

Bronagh mentioned the UK Youth Parliament. I have had the absolute pleasure of working daily with those 18 fantastic young people. Their passion, enthusiasm and commitment is nothing short of inspiring. An MLA came up to me — I will not mention who — and asked whether the Youth Parliament was an after-schools club that I was involved in. The Youth Parliament is not an after-schools club. The 18 young people in the UK Youth Parliament were voted for by 11,000 of their peers. That is not an after-schools club. The young people campaign and lobby. They would put politicians to shame.

In August of this year, I had the delight of chairing its annual sitting and big vote. We had 18 young people from all corners of Northern Ireland. We often have political jokes with one another about what side of the divide we come from. We have respect for one another. Those 18 young people from all corners of the divide went together over to Exeter to meet 300 other young people from the UK. They debated, and it would put some of us to shame. Those young people had different political views, but not once did they fail to show mutual respect for one another. If you turn on the TV and see the House of Commons or this Chamber, if someone says something, someone else says, "Aw, boo, boo". That is not respect for one another; respect for one another is hearing someone's point and disagreeing in a way that you can articulate yourself and use words, not booing across the room.

Rosie mentioned in her speech the goods, facilities and services legislation. It has really shocked me. The legislation has now turned into us and them. It has turned young people against old people. We are fighting the same battles from different corners of the age spectrum. We have the same issues, but it has turned into us and them. That is because our politicians cannot see that young people have the same issues. I was in a meeting with the junior Ministers, and, when they told me about this legislation, I made the point that our young people are getting the bad end of the stick because young people cannot vote on this legislation.

Nick mentioned tolerance. I disagree with the word "tolerance". Tolerance suggests something that we have to do. We have to tolerate an irritating sibling. We have to tolerate a busy bus. We even have to tolerate One Direction. [Laughter.]

I do not want other generations to have to tolerate each other. I do not want to have to tolerate you. I do not want you to have to tolerate me. I want us to want to respect each other. Thanks very much.

Mr Speaker: Thank you very much.

That this House believes the skills and experience of older people can be transferred to the younger generation; and calls on older and younger people to value and respect the contribution each can make to society.

Mr Speaker: Before closing the proceedings, I would like to thank everyone for taking part today. The contributions and discussion, and the breadth of issues that were touched on, indicate the value of this type of discourse. Clearly, issues were mentioned that we did not have sufficient time to resolve, so that is a good excuse for coming back and addressing and pursuing those issues. I strongly recommend that.

At this point, I also want to stress, particularly to our younger participants today, that dissatisfaction with politicians is something that is within your hands. Use your vote to change them. If you do not vote, you cannot take any responsibility for changing what needs to be changed.

Not so much in defence, but as an explanation, the generation of politicians that we have at the present time — I know that the media report the many disagreements, but the agreements that they make on a daily basis are not recorded, because they are not sexy or sensationalist and do not sell newspapers or get media attention. There is no one alive in the North today who is responsible for starting the conflict. We were all born into it. Today's politicians were actually responsible for ending that conflict. That was their gift to you. I think that, within a few short years, some of your generation will be sitting on these Benches and taking us to new places and new possibilities. I strongly recommend that you carefully consider any disengagement or detachment from the electoral process, because you will get the politicians that you deserve if you do not become involved in it.

I want to give a special word of thanks to the Assembly staff who organised and supported this event. I know that events like this do not just happen. A great deal of work went on in the background to make the arrangements to ensure that it was the success that it was.

I hope you all enjoyed the occasion as much as I did and learnt as much as I did. I found the contributions during the debate to be very informative and delivered with genuine commitment, passion, caring and respect. I believe that older people have energy, skills and, most importantly, experience that can be of great benefit to the younger generation and to society as a whole. It is up to us to find ways of harnessing that asset for the benefit of all. Remember that we can all look forward to entering retirement at some point ourselves.

We now move formally to close our proceedings in the normal way through the Adjournment. Thank you all very much indeed.