Tony McLoughlin (Sligo-North Leitrim, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

It was interesting to hear the comments because over the past few weeks we have been listening to some of the experts speaking about the electoral commission. Mr. McGlacken-Byrne is quite right about the recent marriage equality referendum. I met with the Union of Students in Ireland recently and it informed me that 28,000 students voted in the referendum. It was an issue that resonated with many people who may not vote in the next local or general elections. We need to get more young people involved and to vote and be interested. Only recently I met with a group of young people in Sligo, the Youth Café, which has sent a submission to the committee. They would not be prepared to vote at 15 years of age but we also talked about reducing the voting age to 16. Some of them felt that young people do not have the maturity to vote or the interest in voting. How do we overcome this? There are many organisations such as Comhairle na nÓg, Dáil na nÓg and others, that are informed on what is happening.

It is very hard to engage and involve people in politics. The most frustrating thing for us as politicians is that, come election time, people are not registered. The consensus over the past few weeks was that the personal public service, PPS, number could be used as a starting point. What are the witnesses' views on that because that concerns every politician? When we go to a house where a person is not registered, we must get the person to fill out the form, which a garda must sign, before it goes to the local authority and the name goes on a draft register for the next election. It is a very slow and cumbersome way of registering people to vote. As the witnesses said, young people who are at college during the week head home on a Friday for one commitment or another, which makes it difficult for them. In other EU countries and worldwide, elections are held on weekend days, for example, Sunday. What is the witnesses’ view of that?