Jen Cummins (Dublin South Central, Social Democrats)

I thank Sinn Féin for introducing this motion. The Social Democrats will support it.

Democracy is something we must strive to keep in a world where we see it being eroded and erased. Voting in elections is fundamental to democracy. The decision to extend voting rights to people has been a battle, particularly for women, over the past 100 years.

Last year was a bumper year of elections. We had local, European and general elections. I do not need to tell anybody in this House about them; we all know about them. Every candidate knows the importance of getting people out to vote. I am sure there were voter registration drives in every constituency, and there was also voter education, led in particular by our wonderful adult education services. Despite these, the turnout in some constituencies was very low. The lowest was 47.77%, in Dublin Bay South, and Wicklow had the highest, at 67%. In my constituency, Dublin South-Central, the turnout for the general election was 49.1%, which means over half of people eligible to vote did not do so. Therefore, it is important that we engage citizens to vote and engage with our democracy.

There are cracks, however. The independent Electoral Commission was established in February 2023 under the Electoral Reform Act 2022. What is really great is that it has oversight and sets out a clear roadmap in respect of a national register, audits, public information campaigns, binding accuracy standards and, crucially, a dedicated budget and staffing for local authorities, which are so badly needed. A recently published Electoral Commission report starkly showed there are legacy accuracy issues, with hundreds of thousands of names on the register that should not have been due to death, emigration and people moving between local authority areas. The register even exceeded the estimated eligible population in 11 counties.

I welcome my colleague Deputy Aidan Farrelly’s electoral (amendment) Bill, which would see the voting age reduced from 18 to 16. This is not a novel idea. In 1972, the voting age was reduced from 21 to 18. Including people in voting is so important in our democracy. We must fight to keep our democracy. We see all over the world that democracy is being eroded and erased. We see people being othered and rights being removed from people who fought so hard to get them. As politicians, we need to rebuild trust that seems to have been slipping away. We must ensure the people who vote us into this House see we are using our voice here to represent them, and we must ensure we are doing what is right for everybody in this country. We must also ensure people get out to vote. People have told me, and probably several other Members, at the doorsteps that they did not vote because they did not believe it would make any difference. We all know it does. It makes a difference to individuals and communities and it will make a difference to this country. Whether an election is local, European, general or presidential, it is important that people get out to vote.

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