Richard Boyd Barrett (Dún Laoghaire, People Before Profit Alliance) | Oireachtas source

An African proverb goes "The lion roared and it gave birth to a mouse." That pretty much sums up this referendum proposal. The roaring lion was the voices of the people calling for a democratic revolution which the Government had promised and the mouse is a referendum about changing the age at which somebody can run for President. It is almost not worth dignifying the Bill with a serious debate on the proposal made. If it turns up on the ballot paper, with a heavy heart and thinking about what we could be doing for young people and other issues more urgent for society, I will probably put my "X" in the box in favour, but it is crass tokenism of the worst sort.

I understand that when the Constitutional Convention asked for submissions to help it to prioritise its agenda, it was told that, unsurprisingly, the most important issues were economic, social and cultural rights - the things that affect people immediately. Given the litany of tragedies suffered by pregnant women in difficult pregnancies, other things might have been better subjects of a referendum such as a woman's right to choose. Instead we have this piece of tokenism.

I wish to comment on the nod to youth and young people implied in the Bill. We need to do things urgently for young people, but this is not it. If the Bill passes, one will be able to run for President at 21 years, but if a person is under 26 and has not got a job, his or her social welfare entitlement has been cut to €100. How is somebody under 26 years who is not living at home and cannot find a job going to run a presidential campaign? They cannot even put a roof over their heads on €100 per week. A person aged under 26 years who is not in employment and cannot live at home is homeless by definition. Such persons cannot afford to pay rent and the rent supplement they receive will not get them within a stone's throw of being able to put a roof over their heads. That is why young people are on the streets. Why are we not doing something about this?

We have had a children's rights referendum and have a Minister with special responsibility for children, but the situation for young people with mental health problems is diabolical. On 20 occasions in the past five or six weeks I have pressed for a Topical Issue debate on the chronic lack of resources, support and beds for young people with mental health problems or who are suicidal. I cannot have a debate on it, however, while we are having a referendum about which nobody really cares. We have the highest rate of suicide in the European Union among young women and the second highest rate for young men, a rate which has spiked dramatically in the past while. Professor Fiona McNicholas recently protested that there was a deluge of young people with mental health problems who had to be put in beds in accident and emergency departments, which blocked up such departments.

We do not have enough psychologists and a report issued in the past week stated that, in Cork alone, 1,000 people were waiting to see social workers. Some 200 are serious, urgent cases involving suicidal ideation and other problems, but there is a chronic lack of resources to provide for them.

The Children's Rights Alliance published a report today in which it has shown that the Government has failed in this area and it has given it an "E" grade in terms of the provision of mental health services for our young people. It is a disaster. Child poverty stands at 28%. It is a joke. What has been put forward is a nauseating tokenism when we should be dealing with the real issues that affect our young people.

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