Fintan Warfield (Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

It has been six years since the Constitutional Convention recommended that the State should consider reducing the voting age to 16. The previous Government accepted this recommendation and, in July 2013, Deputy Enda Kenny announced plans to hold this referendum. By January 2015, those plans were abandoned by that Government. In September 2017, the current Government revived this commitment when it announced an indicative timetable of referenda to be held, which included lowering the voting age to 16, to be held in May or June 2019. As of last month, the Government appeared to have abandoned those plans to facilitate this referendum by stating that it is not within its plans to hold the referendum in 2019. One has to presume that unless Fine Gael's coalition with Fianna Fáil is formalised, the confidence and supply agreement will end soon after 2019 and, therefore, we will not see this referendum in this Government's term.

If I am honest, I have become cynical about Fine Gael's willingness to re-examine the voting age. We brought forward legislation in this House that would have lowered the voting age in local and European elections and the Government froze it on Second Stage for six months, stating that more time was needed to examine that proposal. We sought to engage with Fine Gael and Fianna Fáil constructively, but we were stonewalled in those efforts. When the legislation returned nine months later, Fine Gael chose to oppose it section by section, stating that a referendum on the matter would be held and that it would, therefore, be premature to extend voting rights in certain elections when we did not have the consent of the people to extend voting rights in all elections. I do not know why it took nine months for the penny to drop. We are now in a situation where Government has not only failed to facilitate this referendum, but has also opposed others in their efforts to reduce the voting age through legislative change. It is time to allow young people to have their say in matters that affect their lives. We will all reap the reward and we will all profit from their inclusion.

We are looking for clarity today on whether a referendum can be held within the lifetime of this Government. Has that potential been explored? Has the Government considered holding the referendum on the same day as a general election? If the Minister of State cannot give any further indication as to when this referendum will be scheduled, will he concede that his Government has failed on its commitment to young people and will he give reasons why a referendum that has been sitting on the agenda for six years has failed to come to fruition?