Enda Kenny (Mayo, Fine Gael)

The Deputy raised the question of Amnesty International and human rights. The very reason for choosing the questions of reducing the voting age to 17 and reducing the presidential term is to see how the convention is actually going to work. We will select 66 people from the register of electors, representative of gender, location, regional spread, age and so on. I want to see how it is actually going to work, so those two issues are ones about which one can give a clear-cut answer. Does one agree with reducing the voting age to 17, or not? In respect of the presidential term, does one agree that it should be reduced to five years in order to bring it into line with the European Parliament and local elections? The Tánaiste and I will review the convention after two months. If weaknesses or inefficiencies are identified or if the convention is not working in the manner in which it is intended we will change it. The Deputy stated that these issues could be agreed outside the convention. However, they are constitutional matters.

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