Young people in Northern Ireland concerned about 'drugs and paramilitary lending' says commissioner

Some people within communities are "putting their lives" and "personal safety at risk" to support young people against paramilitary control and coercion, the Northern Ireland Children's Commissioner has said.

Chris Quinn, who took up the post in September, told UTV "we need government back up and running as soon as is possible" to address such issues.

Mr Quinn said since taking on his role, many young people had spoken to him about "the availability of drugs, issues around drug trafficking and sexual exploitation" as well as "paramilitary lending".

You can hear his wide-ranging interview on issues including education, school absence, poverty and mental health in full, on the UTV Podcast.

The commissioner said the Tackling Paramilitarism Programme, led by the Northern Ireland Executive Office, was "definitely having an impact in communities".

"There are many people working in communities under the radar that aren't getting the support and protection they need, and these people are putting their lives at risk and putting their own personal safety at risk in terms of supporting young people and other people in communities with regards to paramilitary control and coercion.

"I hope we can find a way to support those people.

"I hope we can find a way to, I suppose, move away from conflict. As I say, we are 25 years on the from the Good Friday Agreement and we still have numerous legacy issues to content with.

"For all of these reasons we need government back up and running as soon as is possible."

The level of persistent school absence is Northern Ireland is on the rise - something that the commissioner said is "worrying".

"I would have to look at the data closer, but I would suspect that there is a chance that the numbers of young people not in school is higher and I say that because I know that some of the young people that are recorded as being in school, they’re on reduced time tables.

"So some young people are in school for 30 minutes, 1 hour, 1.5 hours and I need to find out why that is – who is making those calls? How is the young person, the child, their parents and carers - how are they finding those decisions?

"But I go back, my default position is Article 12 of the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child. That’s the voice.

"We need to speak to young people as to why. What are their barriers? I know in some cases there are barriers around anxiety, depression, and those things have increased since the pandemic."

Mr Quinn added: "There are other circumstances whereby parents are choosing to home school for various different reasons and then we have to look at the correlation, or if there is one, with regards to young people who live in the most deprived areas."

Another area of concern for the commissioner is the budget and its impact on children and young people.

"What I don’t want to hear is that we can’t do anything because of the budget," he told UTV.

"I can’t accept that. What I will do though is work with government, with officials, with politicians and hopefully with the secretary of state to look at the Northern Ireland budget. It’s not fit for purpose.

"The formula is well versed that we are underfunded given the need of this part of the world and that’s a macro issue that we need to solve, however that change will take a long time and at the minute 1 in 4 children are living in poverty.

"We need action now, we can’t wait, we need a government back together, but we also need a plan B as I can't control, and you can’t control whether the government get back together.

"But we do have the civil service and we do have permanent secretaries, and we do have lots of people within departments at a permanent secretary level who are all very willing and able to make changes to young people’s lives."

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