Cian O'Callaghan (Dublin Bay North, Social Democrats) | Oireachtas source

I thank the Minister for attending. This is good legislation. A lot of work has gone into it. There has been very good consultation on it. Overall, I am very welcoming of it as it is very important.

I will address three areas. Voter participation, education and outreach are very important and form an essential part of democracy. In other countries where we see groups of people who tended not to get involved in the democratic process or vote in the same numbers being involved in outreach, being educated and participating more in the process, it changes the entire participation of more marginalised groups in society, in decision making and in politics and has a transformative effect. Everyone might not be interested in the nuts and bolts of this but it is very important. There are very good practices in New Zealand where people who have a visual impairment or are hard of hearing can participate in elections. For example, people with a visual impairment can vote over the telephone using a dictation service. There has been very good outreach to younger people and youth advocates. There has been outreach to homeless people also. Will the commission be asked to examine the very good practices in New Zealand? One of the methods New Zealand used, as did other countries, to drive up participation was to have early voting available. Will the commission be asked to look at that? That is my first question.

I welcome what the Minister of State said about the voting age of 16 for local elections.

What is he going to do to try to advance that?

While it is not in the legislation, the programme of Government refers to the regulation of election posters. What does the Minister of State intend to do about that and when might we see some proposals? What are his thoughts?