Dan Boyle (Green Party)

——and not having two three-seat constituencies in County Donegal. It should be whatever the population demands. I would like to see County Donegal having five or six seats and I would like to see County Kerry having five to six seats. North-east Dublin has three three-seat constituencies and I would like to see two constituencies of five seats and four seats as this would better reflect the votes of the people in this country. The terms of reference given to the commission governed its recommendations and the Minister, by custom and practice, as is right, has accepted those recommendations and we also need to accept them. However, we can seek to change the future terms of reference of the ongoing commissions in order to bring about those democratic changes and we have an obligation to do so.

Other issues have been referred to such as Seanad reform and the participation of young people. The National Youth Council of Ireland has been promoting the idea of lowering the voting age to 16 years. My own party was the first party to suggest this change in the case of local elections. There is one such example in the European Union, where last year young people at age 16 participated in a general election to the national Parliament in Austria. Unfortunately one of the effects of this change to include new voters between the ages of 16 and 18 was a rise in the vote for far-right parties. I am not sure if there is a link.

There should be a mechanism, at least at local elections, by which people between the ages of 16 and 18 could be encouraged to participate. This might help overcome one of the significant difficulties whereby participation by voters between the ages of 18 and 25 is only half that for the general population. We need to concentrate on education and ongoing programmes and we need particular mechanisms to involve young people in electoral life. This Bill deals with the minutiae of electoral boundaries and the procedure for nomination. The wider question of the quality of democracy, about participation in democracy and how we can become a more democratic country, will happen in future debates which will be informed by the White Paper on local government and other democratic reforms such as the reform of this House. We should use that opportunity to try to ensure the best quality democracy possible.