Denise Mitchell (Dublin Bay North, Sinn Fein)

I will begin by welcoming the Minister of State's very passionate contribution but I have to say that here we go again, another Bill tabled by the Opposition and another delay by the Government. The exact same thing happened last week with Deputy Ó Snodaigh's Bill on the arts. I will not get started on the presidential voting rights because, as the Minister of State knows, there has been delay after delay. Is this a tactic the Government is bringing forward just to delay sensible proposals being tabled by the Opposition?

I thank the Social Democrats for tabling the Bill on lowering the voting age. It is something for which my party and I have called for a long time and something that I strongly support. I want to start by addressing the arguments we often hear against this.

Usually, it is something alone the lines of young people are not mature enough to vote or they do not have any life experience. The National Youth Council of Ireland, which strongly backs the lowering of voting age, has noted that 17-year-olds can leave school. They can seek full time employment. They can pay tax. They can drive a car. Why can we not trust them to vote? There are young people who take on enormous amounts of responsibility in their own communities. Many teenagers are carers for loved ones in their families. Others volunteer their time in sports clubs and community groups. The reality is that young people have never been more involved in political discussions than they are now.

I see it in my own area. Young people involved in Sphere 17, our local youth group, are working day-in, day-out to improve their community and are campaigning for better resources. Young people have been way ahead of most adults when it comes to mobilising on issues like climate change. We just have to look at the huge number of young people at the demonstrations on Gaza. I trust our 16- and 17-year-olds to be responsible, to inform themselves and take their right to vote very seriously because they have a stake in their communities. They know the decisions that are made in this House affect their future.

The reality is that it has worked in other countries. There have been decisions to lower the age in certain elections in Estonia, Malta and some of the German states but the most important case to look at is Scotland. It has been over a decade since the change was brought in there and results show that young people who voted at the age of 16 or 17 during the Scottish independence referendum have been more likely to vote in other elections since then. It had a positive effect on increasing engagement. Before that change, people in Scotland were not convinced this was a good idea. In fact, only one third of adults supported votes for 16- and 17-year-olds. After the referendum, though, and having seen how well informed young people were, the polls now show that the majority of people actually support it.

This Bill is very welcome but it is a part of a broader reform we need to see when it comes to our democracy. We have a situation where the ability to vote via postal vote is incredibly restricted. People who are studying abroad, those on holidays or even those on business cannot cast their vote. That seriously needs to be looked at. We also have a situation where we have citizens living in the North who have no vote. Extending the vote in presidential elections to Irish citizens living in the North is an important step.

Young people are a lot more clued in than some people give them credit for. If we want to see more engagement in politics and get people to come out and vote, getting them interested in politics at an early age is key to doing that.

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