Brian Stanley (Laois-Offaly, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

I thank the panel for sharing their views with us on this important matter. I brought forward a Bill in the Dáil to reduce the voting age to 16 because Sinn Féin believes young people should be included. We looked very carefully at what happened in Scotland recently, which has not been extended to general elections in Britain but it is hoped it will be.

Can Ms O'Donnell speak about how the Department intends to engage young people? She made a very good point when she said one does not wake up on one's 18th birthday and decide to engage civically. At any rate I do not remember waking up in that way on my 18th birthday. One of the difficulties is that at second level there is a superficial attempt to engage young people with civil and political education, but my own children and others in second level education have told me how people from other political parties came into school to talk to them about engaging in the political process and about politics generally, yet I have never been asked nor have many of my colleagues, despite the fact I have been a public representative for 16 years. I am not saying we should be any different from the others but we are not actually asked and that is the difference. I find it curious and wonder if the panel has any views on that. It seems that parties of the centre or centre right are asked in, but it would encourage young people to engage if they heard different views such as those of ourselves, a left of centre party. Does the panel think that would help? Should schools invite a broader range of political opinion to address young people? When I inquired about that I did not get a straight answer. I heard on the grapevine that it depended on the political allegiance of the principal or the class teacher. To get young people to think about politics, it has to happen before they are 16 and there has to be a discussion about the relevance of politics and how politics affect young people's lives. The starting point is local government.

Mr. Power spoke about the number of young people who registered in the recent referendum, which was brilliant. The level of engagement and the turnout were fantastic, regardless of whichever way they voted. What can be done to sustain that? He mentioned some of the problems, such as the fact the referendum was on one issue and that people will very soon vote on the 158 people to attend the Dáil and deal with a range of issues which are equally important. They will make decisions on behalf of the electorate and it is a bit more convoluted than the referendum. The referendum was direct democracy and a question of whether one voted for or against gay marriage, whereas in a general election, the voters elect someone to make decisions on their behalf or to represent their views.

How might we carry that over into the general election and, indeed, future city and county council elections?

I read Mr. Ian Power's interesting paper earlier which said that New Zealand spent two and half or three times more on an electoral commission than we spend here on the electoral process. How should it be spent? There are probably a range of things, but does one specific aspect stand out which requires expenditure?

The vexed question of household registration was dealt with at length by Mr. McGlacken-Byrne. I came across a house where there were seven people registered but only two people were living there. There are many stories like that around the country. It is not confined to any one area; it happens in a number of places. We should all have an interest in trying to stamp that out, but what system should we replace it with? We have discussed this matter many times before in the Chamber and outside it with the previous Minister for the Environment, Community and Local Government, Commissioner Phil Hogan. The PPS number was suggested by our party. The system in the North involves a rolling registration process, which does not close like it does here. Would that suffice in place of the current system without going to individual registration?

One of the problems highlighted to me is that some 6.5 million PPS numbers have been issued. That can be explained by people in the graveyard, those returning to Poland, or Irish people in New Zealand, Canada, Australia or elsewhere.

There have been recommendations concerning citizens in the Six Counties being allowed to vote in presidential or Seanad elections. There have been some suggestions of having a separate panel of people from the North, whereby people in the North could have some voice. We have had such Senators in the past, including Séamus Mallon and Gordon Wilson. There were various people from the North who had useful and important things to say. What are the panel's views on that question concerning that section of our citizenry, given the fact that constitutionally, they are Irish citizens?

The Constitutional Convention made recommendations about Northern voters being able to vote for Uachtaráin na hÉireann. Mary McAleese was a very good President, as is President Michael D. Higgins. The fact that Mrs. McAleese's family could not vote for her shows how skewed things are.