Fintan Warfield (Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

I welcome the Minister of State to the House. We can only achieve a thriving democracy when all of society has a stake in the process. I want to focus on widening the franchise. This House has done considerable work on seeking to lower the voting age to 16. We have retabled the Electoral (Amendment) (Voting at 16) Bill in this term. We were joined in that campaign by Senator Malcolm Byrne from the Fianna Fáil Party who also tabled a Bill to lower the voting age to 16 in local and European elections. We have the ability and right, as Senators, to do that through legislation. It would not require a constitutional amendment, as proposed by citizens in the constitutional convention in March 2013. This House has the power to lower the voting age to 16, thankfully, and I welcome the fact Senator Pauline O’Reilly also supports that idea. It has long been a commitment of green politics and the Green Party to support lowering the voting age to 16. There are people in all parties and none who support lowering the voting age. Let us do that and use this Bill to lower the voting age to 16. We will not be here forever and, as such, we will not have the ability and privilege to legislate forever. Let us do that and let Seanad Éireann be the Chamber that lowers the voting age to 16. While it is welcome that we allow people to register to vote before they reach the age of 18, it is a bit of a nod to the issue of reducing the voting age to 16. I will not go as far as to say it is a bit of cop-out because it is a very important amendment. I know people who did not get a chance to vote until they were 24 years of age because they may not have registered in time before their 18th birthday. Sinn Féin will bring forward an amendment to lower the voting age to 16. I appeal to Members, with respect and with dignity, to support that amendment because it comes from a genuine place.

People are allowed to join a political party at the age of 16, as I did. The activism and involvement of young people in recent referendum campaigns on civil marriage equality and the eighth amendment is evidence that when they are engaged, young people demonstrate an interest in mobilising and participating in the political process, despite the obstacles that we know they face. Hopefully, the electoral commission will solve those issues, in addition to dealing with the nuts and bolts of running elections. Those obstacles include a lack of formal education, the promotion of the idea of registering to vote and the difficulties with registering to vote. As they have been mentioned, I will not go over those obstacles again. However, they must be overcome to ensure young people feel empowered in their democracy and are included as voters at 16 and 17 years of age.

For years, we have called for registration processes to make it easier for people to have their say. The Union of Students in Ireland, USI, has been running registration campaigns for a long time. We often encounter different processes in local authorities. Some will not accept bulk registration forms, while others will.

My colleague, Deputy Ó Donnghaile, will speak about votes in presidential elections and votes for citizens in the North. While Seanad reform requires a separate Bill, we cannot fail to mention today the need to open up Seanad elections to everyone in this State, across the island and overseas if they have a university degree. In addition, people who have been resident in Ireland but may not yet be citizens should be allowed a right to vote, regardless of their nationality or citizenship status if they have been here for a certain amount of time.

An issue raised at a recent meeting of the Joint Committee on Gender Equality was that civic, social and political education, CSPE, is being downgraded from an examination subject. We have brought the Electoral (Amendment) (Voting at 16) Bill back to this House three times. Every time, we have been told our young people need education and this, that and the other, yet CSPE has been removed as an examination subject. Where does that leave young people’s formal education in terms of voter participation and our politics? Too often, these issues have been obstructed in this House. We will have a chance to discuss the issue again on Committee Stage. I put the House on notice in that respect and appeal to Senators for their support.

The establishment of an electoral commission was first raised in the Oireachtas in 2004. It has been agreed in consecutive programmes for Government since 2007. The last time I checked, there were 66 state-run electoral commissions operating worldwide, 28 of which are in Europe. In most cases, their remit is to promote and encourage participation and voting, oversee voter registration processes and collate electoral data. Currently, these responsibilities lie with the local authorities and the Department of Housing, Local Government and Heritage.

I, too, join Senator Boyhan in expressing some concern that we do not have a standardised registration process across local authorities. While I hate to see power removed from local authorities, we need a standardised system.

I raise the disquiet expressed by NGOs regarding political advocacy. They are concerned that the definition of "political purposes" is too restrictive. While we should have robust rules to ensure there are no external influences, we cannot limit the ability of NGOs. We need to find a balance on that issue. I hope my comrade will talk about proxy votes in the North, as I may not have time to do so.

On a day that we should all be on the same page, I am saddened and disappointed that Fianna Fáil felt it was necessary to bring forward an amendment to allow it to do legally what it could not do last year. That is all I will say on that issue. It has been spoken about at length in the other House. I am disappointed, however, that we cannot all be on the same page today.

Sinn Féin supports the Bill, which is long overdue. We have called for years for the establishment of an electoral commission, as have many Members of this House.