Diolch, Ddirprwy Lywydd. Mae’n bleser cael cyfle i agor ac arwain y ddadl hon heddiw, sy’n galw ar y Cynulliad Cenedlaethol i sefydlu senedd ieuenctid i Gymru. Rwyf eisiau dweud diolch i bob plaid yn y Siambr am y gefnogaeth sydd wedi’i hymestyn i’r cynnig hwn.

Dirprwy Lywydd, this Assembly has a proud tradition in relation to supporting children and young people. Since its establishment in 1999, there have been landmark pieces of legislation and decisions that have placed Wales as a world leader in promoting the place of children and young people in our nation. In the early years of this Assembly, the decision to adopt a rights-based approach to children and young people put this institution on a path that led the way for other UK nations. The unanimous support for the creation of the post of a children’s commissioner for Wales to champion those rights was a landmark step. In 2001, Wales became the very first nation in the UK to appoint a children’s commissioner—a truly independent person to hold the Welsh Government, this Parliament and others to account, and to ensure that we deliver for our young citizens. Then, in 2011, we went further, legislating to enshrine the rights of children and young people in Welsh law, placing duties on Ministers to have regard for the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child, and then, in 2014, extending those duties to promote knowledge and understanding of the UNCRC.

We’ve supported the development of school councils to give children and young people a greater say in how their schools are run, and we’ve encouraged young people to use the Assembly’s petitions process to raise concerns and to campaign for change. These are all ground-breaking achievements, of which we can be rightly proud. To make them all the more special, they were achieved with cross-party support. Not only have we adopted policies and legislated for the rights of children and young people, but each one of the parties in this Chamber has also expressed its support for youth engagement. Individual AMs, through school visits and encountering young people in their constituencies, visiting colleges, and engaging with youth organisations, for example, have all improved engagement. We’ve supported the excellent work of the Assembly Commission in engaging with young people also in our schools, colleges and universities. Assembly engagement teams have delivered thousands of education sessions to thousands of young people across the country, informing them of our work as an Assembly and encouraging them to get involved in what we do. They have also supported the programme of Assembly committees, facilitating evidence exercises with children and young people to enable them to feed in to our work. I remember, for example, the excellent engagement activities that the former Health and Social Care Committee in the previous Assembly had with young people in relation to our inquiry into new psychoactive substances, or so-called legal highs.

The Commission, of course, also provides support with transport costs for schools and others to enable them to visit the Senedd. All of these things are very positive examples of youth engagement, which need to continue. They help to demonstrate how we seek compliance with the UNCRC’s requirement to respect the views of the child. But, in spite of these important achievements, our record as an institution has been tarnished in recent years as a result of the absence of a youth parliament in Wales. Of course, it hasn’t always been this way. Back in 2003, Funky Dragon, a children and young people’s Assembly, was established with the financial support of the Welsh Government. The creation of a platform from which children and young people could discuss their concerns and voice their opinions and engage with elected representatives at all levels of government was welcomed by all. Funky Dragon worked very carefully to be inclusive and to be a representative body that reached out to communities across Wales and that ensured that young people in hard-to-reach groups were also heard. It engaged well with other youth parliaments in the UK, in Europe and beyond, soon becoming the go-to organisation to seek the views of children and young people. And, of course, it engaged well with the Welsh Government, the National Assembly, Commissioners, and other decision makers across the country.

Funky Dragon was a success. It discussed issues of concern to young people, from bullying and the environment to access to public transport and mental health services. Young people were facilitated and supported to research, to debate, and to make recommendations to decision makers. Yet, in spite of the success, in 2014, its funding was axed, and, unfortunately, Funky Dragon was wound up. It was, of course, replaced with another youth engagement project, called Young Wales, a project that is doing some excellent work, engaging with young people across the country, listening to their views, and seeking to amplify their voice to decision makers, but it is not, nor has it ever pretended to be, a youth parliament.

Now, I don’t want to go into the arguments that raged in the Assembly at the time that the decision was taken to disinvest in Funky Dragon, but, needless to say, it was seen as a retrograde step by many on all sides of this house. And, since Funky Dragon’s demise, there has been a growing chorus of voices that has been seeking a new youth parliament to be established in Wales. A survey of young people by the Campaign for the Children and Young People’s Assembly for Wales found that an overwhelming 92 per cent of respondents wanted to see a new youth parliament, and 85 per cent of those who were surveyed want the youth parliament to be permanent and protected in law. The Children’s Commissioner for Wales has also called for a reinstated national democratic space for young people in the form of a youth assembly in her recent report. The British Council, the Electoral Reform Society and others have also expressed their support for a youth parliament as well. And, in this year’s report by the UNCRC monitoring committee, which was published in July, the committee expressed concern that Wales has no youth parliament, and it called for one to be established.

Now, I recognise that there are different models of youth parliaments in different nations and jurisdictions around the world, including here in the United Kingdom. Some are established by Governments, some are established by parliamentary institutions, and I listened carefully to what was said earlier on in response to the Member for Torfaen’s question to the Llywydd in relation to the establishment of a youth parliament here, and I was very pleased to hear the response, and I’m looking forward to hearing more in the debate about how this National Assembly can take forward a proposal for a youth parliament here. But the precise model that the National Assembly should adopt is not something that I want to debate in too much detail; I’m sure other people will bring ideas to the Chamber this afternoon. But what I’m seeking to do today, and I’m grateful for the support of all parties, is to secure agreement to resolve to establish a national youth parliament for Wales, so that young people here can have the opportunity to have their say and to influence decisions that are made about their lives in this place and in other places, and, of course, we all know that a youth parliament can help to make that happen.