Assumption Secondary School, Walkinstown, Dublin, will represent the Dublin Euro Constituency in the national final of the 2009 Transition Year Public Speaking competition run annually by the National Forum on Europe. The Walkinstown students will be competing for the top prize of a trip for the entire class to the European Parliament in Strasbourg. Students Ellen O’Sullivan, Alison Kane and Kim Doran saw off tough competition today from fellow Dublin finalists Pobal Scoil Neasáin, Baldoyle, Dublin 13; Templeogue College, Templeville Road, Dublin 6w; and Sandford Park College, Ranelagh, Dublin 6.
The student teams addressed the very topical theme: "The European Union: my vision for creating jobs and growth in Ireland".
This year, a record hundred and seventy schools around the country entered the prestigious annual competition which is being held in each Euro constituency in conjunction with all the Irish Members of the European Parliament, each of whom appointed a co-ordinator to organise the local heats. Dublin MEPs Gay Mitchell of Fine Gael, the Labour Party’s Proinsias De Rossa, and Sinn Féin’s Mary Lou McDonald attended the event in the Radisson Hotel in Golden Lane, Dublin 8 and warmly congratulated the students and their teachers for their contributions. ___________________________________________________________________
The National Forum On Europe was established by the Government and the political parties in October 2001 as an arena for free debate on the European Union and Ireland’s role in it. In the last seven years, it has held ninety seven plenary meetings; over ninety regional meetings and conferences; and seven annual public speaking competitions for Transition Year students.
National Forum On Europe, Fóram Náisiúnta um an Eoraip © 2010