Dáil debates

Thursday, 23 June 2022

An Bille um an Naoú Leasú is Tríocha ar an mBunreacht (Ceart Vótála ag Aois 16) 2021: An Dara Céim [Comhaltaí Príobháideacha] - Thirty-ninth Amendment of the Constitution (Right to Vote at 16) Bill 2021: Second Stage [Private Members]

 

5:25 pm

Photo of Gerald NashGerald Nash (Louth, Labour) | Oireachtas source

This has been a very interesting discussion. I thank Deputy Pringle for bringing this Bill forward. This reflects the Labour Party’s position on the question of extending the franchise. This is very important. This is about the evolution of the democratic process. It was not very long ago when women were denied the vote. We heard some of the same kinds of tropes that are used to deny younger people in western democracies the right to vote. Nobody in here is using those tropes, thankfully. I did not hear that the Minister is opposed to the idea of extending the franchise to younger voters.

Democracy in this Republic is a work in progress. Who are we to say that we should deny the natural evolution and natural extension of the franchise to those aged 16 and 17? In fact, there is a very compelling argument as to why we should. Even anecdotally from my own experience, as somebody who has been actively engaged in politics and political activism from a very young age, I can detect and determine much more engagement now from younger people regarding their civic responsibilities, their understanding of how our democracy does or sometimes does not work and discussions around alternatives to how we do things now.

One of the best and most enlightening engagements I have had in recent weeks was a conversation with fifth year students in my alma mater, St. Joseph’s CBS in Drogheda. I want to acknowledge, as Deputy Collins did, some engagement she has had with constituents who may be 16 or 17 at this point, or even younger, and who are involved in the ISSU. In the engagement I had, for example, at St. Joseph’s CBS we heard from local activists such as Andrew Victory who has been in touch with me by email this week. He is one of the Louth-Meath regional officers for the ISSU. I want to pay tribute to Eva Grace as well for the contact she had with me ahead of this. That engagement that I had in my former school just a few weeks ago was very enlightening, as was the more recent engagement I had with fifth year politics students in Drogheda Grammar School. What those students said to me, and the way in which they approached the arguments they were making about many important social, economic and cultural issues, convinced me even more that the young people of 2022 have much more agency, knowledge about the process and the system and much more intellectual clarity about how the world works and how it and our political system might work better.

The experience in other countries where the vote has been extended to 16- and 17-year-olds has been quite telling. In Austria, Norway and Scotland, as was said earlier, people can vote from 16 in certain elections. Why not let Irish citizens do the same? These are the kinds of countries that we like to compare ourselves against from a range of perspectives. Evidence shows that since the introduction of votes for 16-year-olds in Scotland, political engagement has increased and deepened. Likewise, in Austria, research conducted on voting behaviour of young voters aged 16 to 18 revealed that young people are interested in politics. We can often dismiss young people as not having an interest in politics. That has not been my experience at all; it is quite the opposite. While we used to perhaps say a few years ago that perhaps young people are not interested in politics or political parties and are more interest in direct action or single issues, I see now much more focus on getting involved in the collective, a political party, a trade union or a local climate action group, for example.

The idea that taxation and representation need to be linked is an American truism in many ways. If the Minister of State recalls - I think it was mentioned earlier on - you can work at 16 and 17 and pay income tax, but you have no right to engage in an election that might determine how your tax might be spent and engage in political debate on the competing political philosophies of how your money might be spent and where resources might be best directed in this society and economy.

There is also an issue that I am extremely concerned about, which I am on record about for quite some time regarding how we need to see change. Young people can work at 16 and 17 but we still have the extraordinary situation where the adult rate of the national minimum wage does not apply to somebody them. They work and they pay perhaps a small amount of tax, depending on where the thresholds lie and so on, but they are paid less than the adult who might be working in the same shop, restaurant, office or factory. They are doing an equivalent job. Part of me feels that one of the reasons that is the case is those who are 16 and 17 cannot vote and, therefore, their voice is minimised and diminished. This is an issue we need to address in the application of minimum wage law to 16- and 17-year-old workers. I hope that is something that we can do over the next period.

In conclusion, fundamentally this is about the evolution of our democracy and this Republic, which is unfinished business. Democracies always evolve and the franchise is always under review. There is a very strong, compelling argument to extend the vote to 16- and 17-year-olds. From what I heard from the Minister, there is not an outright denial that this will happen, but, rather, he requires some more time to consider this. He wants the electoral commission to review this and to proceed with a degree of caution, but accepting in principle that this something that will happen. I think it is inevitable. The sooner it happens, the better. We will all be better off as a society when we extend the franchise to 16- and 17-year-olds.

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