Whitmore Enters Trilateral Talks With Greystones Youth

Greystones is in de House!

atest press release from Jennifer Whitmore TD, issued on Monday, January 26th 2026…

Social Democrat TD for Wicklow, Jennifer Whitmore, has commended the work done by the Greystones Trilateral Student Council in writing the Greystones Youth Voice Report 2025.

Students from the trilateral congress presented the report to her in Leinster House this week.

“I am absolutely blown away by the quality of this report and the work that these students are doing. The idea to set up the Greystones Trilateral Student Council came from a student, and it is such a valuable initiative. Having students, with lived experience of the issues they faced and continue to face as young people, come together and write this report is an amazing thing to see,” Deputy Whitmore explained.

The Greystones Trilateral Student Council comprises students from three local secondary schools – St David’s, Temple Carrig, and Greystones Community College. In their report, the students identified key areas that need changed in order to remove barriers for young people and improve their quality of life. Four key areas emerged for them – mental health, climate action, public transport, and funding and facilities.

“Mental health is an issue that we talk about all the time in politics, and one that is so important to young people’s lives. Things have changed so much since my generation was in school and the most obvious change is social media and internet use. This report offers some ways to tackle the challenges that come with that, such as peer to peer education between the schools and promoting internet safety campaigns from the likes of the amazing ‘It Takes a Village’,” Deputy Whitmore continued.

“Another suggestion in this report is for reform to the ‘exit pass’ system that schools use. These passes are a way for students to let their teacher know that they need to leave the classroom. The problem is that using an exit pass usually involves making yourself known to everyone in the class, which some students find overwhelming and intimidating. The report calls for a reform of the exist pass system by engaging with students and learning from their experience and needs.”

“The public transport issues that the students raise in this report and very familiar to me and ones that I have been working on too. They rightly point out the lack of connectivity to rural areas in the periphery of Greystones. One of the recommendations is for the long-promised introduction of the Roundwood to Bray local link, something that I’ve been calling for for a long time now. It was great to see that the students are as invested in this service as I am.”

“The report also rightly points to the huge issues we have with reliability in our public transport system. The students highlighted that heavily delayed services are constantly making them late to school and, in a lot of cases, lead them to getting a lift instead of the bus.

“This is a huge issue in a country that is repeatedly missing its climate targets in its transport sector, and one that the Government and NTA need to take seriously.

“I’m really looking forward to continuing my work with the Greystones Trilateral Student Council and pushing for progress with them,” Whitmore concluded.

“I’d like to thank each and every one of the students involved in this initiative, and indeed their teachers for supporting them in seeing it through.”