Paul Murphy (Dublin South West, Socialist Party) | Oireachtas source

-----is not interested in dealing with young people.

With regard to the Bill, the notion Deputy Mitchell put forward that Irish people can lose the run of themselves by electing a 21 year old President - the idea that the worst thing that could possibly befall the State is that the people in a democracy would elect somebody who happened to be 21 rather than 35 or older - is bizarre. The point is that people should have a right to choose who they elect as President. The point of a democracy is that we trust the people to choose. That is the reason we have tabled an amendment to reduce the age of eligibility for election to that office from 21 to 18. We will be voting in favour of the Bill but we will not be going along with the Government's hypocrisy about involving people in politics or about caring about the conditions of young people.

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