What is Comhairle na nÓg?

• Comhairle na nÓg are local youth councils, which give children and young people the opportunity to be involved in the development of local services and policies.
• There is a Comhairle na nÓg in every city and county. Comhairle na nÓg were set up in the 34 City and County Development Boards around the country
• Comhairlí fulfil Goal 1 of the National Children’s Strategy (2000), which states ‘Children will have a voice in matters which affect them and their views will be given due weight in accordance with their age and maturity’.
• The work of Comhairle na nÓg is the responsibility of the local authority in each city and county and is part-funded by the Office of the Minister for Children and Youth Affairs (OMCYA).

What do Comhairlí do?

Comhairlí normally have a ‘life-cycle’ or a typical set of activities that take place through the year including:

• An Autumn AGM at which Comhairle members are elected and at which young people in the county/city discuss issues, the work of comhairle and identify actions for the Comhairle to work on
• Team building and development of youth-led committee structures and roles within the Comhairle
• The development of a workplan and identification of key actions/changes that they would like to effect in policy/services in the county or city
• A number of campaigning events, meetings with decision-makers, inputs into policy and decision-making fora in order to address the actions/changes identified in the workplan
• Preparation and attendance at Dáil na nÓg (the National Youth Parliament)

Actions carried out to date include

1. Development of an alcohol awareness leaflet adopted for the CSPE curriculum nationally
2. Development of a Youth Café Plan and application for Dormant accounts
3. Presentations and consultation with Garda Síochána
4. Developed an agreement for lower costs tickets to cinema
5. Research into bullying
6. Planning of AGM for 2020
7. Launch of the anti bullying awareness DVD

Please see below the attached link to the National Comhairle na Óg website for updates on ongoing projects in County Westmeath:

http://www.comhairlenanog.ie/local-comhairle/westmeath/

Winners of the pride of place award

Westmeath Comhairle na nÓg who won the Westmeath Pride of Place awards in 2015 and went on to represent the county in the National All-Island Pride of Place competition, where Westmeath have enjoyed great successes over the past years.

Comhairle na nOg (3,017kB) ‌

Download it

• Alcohol Awareness for Life Leaflet (1,168kB)  
• Diagram of Comhairle na nÓg Structure (10kB)