Gerard Craughwell (Independent) | Oireachtas source

On the young vote, it greatly disturbed me that when a Bill introduced in the Seanad recently to extend the vote to 16 year olds for local, European and presidential elections was shot down. If young people aged 16 and upwards are brought into the electoral process, we have them for life. Let us hope this Government or the next will revisit the matter. It is of great importance that we engage people in the democratic process as early as possible and it would be great to see Europe take a lead in this. There are countries which already have the vote at 16 years and the world has not ended in any of them, nor were any lives lost. It broadens the democratic process.

The one difficulty I have always had with Europe is the Commission and our appointment of Commissioners. It is not something we can deal with through this process but I have always felt that the democratic imperative was missing there. In some cases, the Commissioner role is a nice job for a good old crony who has spent his or her life in Irish or British politics and a means of getting a good pension. That is not how it should be. We should send people who are selected by a democratic process, even if it meant something like the Senate election that takes place in this country. I am not denigrating any of the Commissioners who have represented Ireland in the past. They did their jobs well but it is an oversight.

I compliment Mr. Temple-Smithson on this document and look forward to a robust debate as we go through this process. I hope the document leads to a topical national conversation. I am saddened by the slide in electoral turnout. Anything that can be done to stall or reverse this trend would be very welcome. I cannot see Ireland ever adopting mandatory voting. However, it is a good lead-up to the European elections. It looks so good that I might even run myself.