Frank Feighan (Roscommon-South Leitrim, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I am pleased to speak about the Constitutional Convention. The convention, which held its first plenary meeting over a weekend in January of this year, consists of 66 citizens, 33 parliamentarians and an independent chairperson. This is democracy in action. The balance among the citizens, who were selected randomly from the electoral register by a polling company, is representative of Irish society in general. I would like to know how many people refused to participate in the convention because they were too busy or they felt it was not in their interests. Can the Minister comment on the level of take-up among those asked to be one of the 66 citizens? I congratulate the chairman, the politicians and the citizens on the great work they have done at what seems to be an open and fair forum. The various matters seem to have been dealt with in a very efficient manner.

The main recommendations made by the convention are that the voting age should be reduced to 16, that the presidential term should not be reduced and that the presidential term should not be aligned with the local and European elections. The issue I have with the proposal to reduce the voting age to 16 is that a kind of X factor is coming into politics. When someone appears on "Tonight with Vincent Browne" or is interviewed on the radio, that does not mean he or she is a brilliant politician. It does not matter whether he or she is making no sense or is making loads of sense. I have seen such people coming through the doors of the local county council. I am not saying I have any X factor. People who are in politics have to represent their constituents, regardless of whether they have a quiet personality, a mad personality or a good personality. I hope no one in here has a bad personality.

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