Eoin Ó Broin (Dublin Mid West, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

I support Deputy O'Callaghan in his amendment, the first part of which relates to an amendment of mine that was ruled out of order. I will speak to that and then to the other elements of the Deputy's amendment.

The case for extending the right to vote to younger people is compelling. We spend a great deal of time speaking of concerns about how the participation rate of people aged 18 to 20 years is far lower than it should be and how our democracy would be greatly enhanced if we found ways to encourage it. The best way to get someone to vote is to start as early as possible. If people start voting at an early age, the likelihood of them continuing increases. Consider the other age restrictions in our society. The age of consent is 17 years, as is the age at which someone can drive a car. Some would say that being able to vote is more dangerous than driving a car, although I am not sure I agree. We allow 14-year-olds and 15-year-olds to work up to 35 hours per week under certain conditions set down in legislation. We allow 16-year-olds and 17-year-olds to work for 40 hours per week. While only a small number of people of that age would work anything close to those hours, they pay tax and there is a core principle that there should be no representation without taxation. Under the reverse of that, if someone is paying tax, surely he or she should have a say in how that tax is allocated and spent.

While this amendment is well crafted in that it asks the commission to review this matter instead of changing the voting age right now, it would send a powerful signal if the Government were willing to indicate it would consider the matter, either by way of accepting the amendment or returning with its own version of it on Report Stage.

The current situation must be galling for non-citizens. They are living in this country, working hard and paying their taxes, they could be paying mortgages and their kids might have been born in Ireland and be going to school here, yet we give them no say whatsoever in how their taxes are allocated and spent. This makes a mockery of the principle of democracy. There are complex issues as to what point someone who is a resident in the State and not a citizen should be given that entitlement. Obviously, there must be checks and balances and it must be done in an appropriate way, but we have long-settled and valuable new Irish communities. Many of the people in question might not want Irish citizenship because they have an attachment to their countries of origin and want to hold on to that citizenship, but they also want to be full and equal participants in the life of this State.

The value of this amendment is that it is not asking the Government to change policy, only to have the commission examine these issues, which is something the commission is being set up to do. Some of us represent significant parts of the west of Dublin city where there are higher concentrations of people whose original countries of origin are outside the EU. Their engagement with the electoral system is a challenge at the best of times. For those who would like to engage to be denied that right simply because of their citizenship is a problem. Irrespective of what is in the Minister of State's speaking note, I urge him to think long and hard about this amendment and revert at a later stage, if possible. There is no compelling argument for someone with a long residency and long history of paying taxes in this State to be denied the right to have a say in how those taxes are spent and allocated. On that basis, I am happy to support the amendment.