Thomas Pringle (Donegal South West, Independent)

I welcome the opportunity to speak on this important Bill. I disagree with the Minister - the Bill is timely, given that we have just had a presidential election. The recent election highlighted a number of flaws in the current system, particularly in respect of the nomination process for Independent candidates to get on the ballot paper. The Bill proposes what I believe are satisfactory arrangements to alter that system.

The election campaign highlighted the fact that the electorate regard the Office of President as an independent office and does not see it as party political. Clearly the most blatant and openly partisan candidate was the Fine Gael candidate who fared very badly on election day with no reflection of the vote the party achieved in the recent general election. This was solely on the basis that the electorate views the office of President as an independent office and do not see it in that party political role. That had a significant impact on how the election results played out.

The successful candidate, President Higgins, although a party nominated candidate was in the view of the people an Independent and above parliamentary politics. That was reflected in the overall decision made by the people. The provisions to amend the nomination process for Independent candidates are therefore worthwhile and timely.

They tie in with the other provisions in the Bill, such as reducing the age that candidates must be to receive a nomination to seek election as President. If somebody can go through the process of securing 10,000 signatures from voters on the register of electors, they would have to be a candidate of good standing who could command a certain amount of popular support. That is true regardless of their age. A candidate in their early or mid-20s or up to 30 years old who can get that number of people to support their nomination would obviously be worthy of the office and could contribute a great deal to the office of the presidency if their election campaign was successful.

I believe there is a disconnect between young people and the electoral process. Often young people will vote in alternative ways but the problem is that in many cases they do not go out to vote at all. That is a reflection of the fact that they do not see politics as relevant to their lives. If somebody of a young age comes forward and stands in a future presidential election, it can only be good for the body politic and ensure that young people will engage with the process. For that reason I believe this Bill is an important provision and should be considered.

I disagree with the Minister's view that this Bill has been introduced too early. I also worry when I hear Ministers say that something should be considered by a constitutional review. That is a signal that it will be put on the long finger and that nothing will happen in the lifetime of this Government. The Minister also said it is unlikely that there will be another presidential election before 2018. That is seven years in the future, which means the Government intends to do nothing with this process. If it is put before another constitutional committee or review group, it will be considered for a number of years, there will be a raft of meetings, it will generate reports and it will still go nowhere. In early 2019, if some of us are still lucky enough to be Members of the House, we will probably be bringing forward another Private Members' Bill to try to amend the provisions in the Constitution relating to the President.

The Minister said that most of the amendments proposed in the Bill reflect recommendations in the May 1996 report of the constitutional review group and the first and third reports of the Oireachtas All-Party Committee on the Constitution in 1997 and 1998. Now, in the dying days of 2011, we still have not seen any proposals for change brought forward. That reflects the biggest problem on the Government side of the House. There appears to be a total reluctance to deal with the issues. There is no doubt that the Constitution was a good document and served its purpose at the time, but there is a crying need for amendments to be made to it.

The presidency, which is the primary political office in the land, is a good place to start. If a simple constitutional amendment such as this was put before the people, I have no doubt it would be passed. It would start the process of change, which would be an organic process that would develop over a number of years with a series of referenda to change the Constitution and make it more relevant to current times. Doing it in that way means we could deal with some of the less controversial elements and start to shape the Constitution we will need for future years. We can have the review groups and all-party committees to examine the other issues and devise possible changes and amendments on that basis.

However, if this is sent to a committee again, nothing will happen and we will still be here talking about the presidency ten or 15 years hence. In the next presidential election there will be the same difficulties for independent candidates, which will simply serve to further erode confidence in the office and in our ability to change it and make it reflect modern society. This Bill is very important and the Government should accept it. There will be an opportunity in 2014, if we must wait that long, when local and European Parliament elections are due to be held to put forward constitutional amendments to deal a number of issues such as the presidency. Indeed, if the Government has a difficulty with reducing the age for candidates to 18 years, we could also hold a referendum during the local elections to reduce the age of candidates for the Dáil to 18 years too. That would make the constitutional provisions reflect all the requirements.

I support this Bill and commend Deputy Murphy on bringing it forward. I urge the Government to accept the Bill and to move as quickly as possible to implement the changes, not pass it to another committee where it will languish for years.

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