Gerry Adams (Louth, Sinn Fein)

I welcome the initiative to convene a constitutional convention and I especially welcome the opportunity to attend briefings the Taoiseach has organised. However, the convention's scope has been limited. During the election campaign, the Taoiseach said, "Modern Ireland cannot be governed by a system of government originally designed for 19th century Britain. Ireland needs more than piecemeal reform, it needs radical root and branch change". I fully agree with that.

Our society has changed because of the peace process in the North, the economic crisis and the revelations of corruption and all the other scandals. People, therefore, are up for big, positive change. There is still time for the Government to move this constitutional convention into dealing with the type of reform the Taoiseach has flagged up. For example, my office has been contacted by an independent online youth organisation called Spunout. It has raised a number of concerns, including whether 16 or 17 year old citizens will be involved in the process of lowering the voting age to citizens aged 17 years. The Government's commitment is only for six citizens under the age of 24 to be part of the convention. All the citizen participation is limited to people on the electoral register, which means that those who are not on the register, for whatever reason, will not be able to have an input. It also means that citizens from the North cannot have an input.

Can this process be broadened out by using social networking and other methods? Can we reduce the age to bring in young people? It must be remembered that the constitutional referendum on the protection of children is coming up also, so we should let young people be heard in this convention. Can we bring in people who are not on the electoral register, particularly those from the Six Counties?

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