Eileen Flynn (Independent) | Oireachtas source

I thank Senator Warfield for bringing this very important issue to the Seanad. I also thank my colleague, Senator Ruane, who has done a lot of work on votes for 16-year-olds for many years.

Last Thursday, my colleague, Deputy Pringle, brought a Bill to the Dáil on lowering the voting age to 16. I watched the debate very closely. The response of the Minister of State was that we would come back to it next year. It was a positive move, so I am not dismissing it. Even though it is a year down the line, we got the word last week that the Bill will be moved this time next year.

We are saying that the voting age will be discussed by the commission and that it will form part of its work but will young people be around the table when the commission meets? That is what I am interested in knowing. As I said last week, I understand that the Minister of State's heart is in the right place when it comes to wanting young people's voices to be heard and for young people to have a vote. I spoke to a young person outside the door, Jamie, who asked me to bring up the fact that when they go into hospital they are no longer classed as young people. He said they can no longer go to Temple Street, Children's Health Ireland at Crumlin, or any children's hospital, they have to go to an adult hospital, yet they are not allowed to vote. Young people are allowed to leave school when they are 16 and they are not allowed to vote. In the North, young people can get married at 16. We are looking at what 16-year-olds can and cannot do.

Senator Ruane correctly pointed out that being able to vote would give young people power and place a value on them in society. If we keep telling young people that they are okay, but they will not get the vote for another two years, all we are doing is pushing them aside. With no disrespect to the Minister of State, why do we keep kicking the can down the road? The young people who are looking for a vote for 16-year-olds today will have 16-year-old children by the time the legislation will be passed.

I had a bit of a different experience in my childhood. This might add a bit of madness into the debate, but I hope that is not the case. When I was 18, I went down and voted for who my father told me to go down and vote for, because I was pure innocent. That was the case with younger people years ago. Times have changed. Society has changed. Young people have changed. I am sure that years ago, if a scene came on the television of somebody kissing, many of us in this room would probably have turned our head, as Irish people did, as a 16-year-old, but things have changed within society, and we need to change with it. Young people are much more educated about sex and want to be involved in the political system and want their voices to be heard. As Senator Ruane says, young people are well able to speak on the global stage and to articulate what they want within their own lives. I guess that the Minister of State will not accept the amendments because of what was said in the debate in the Dáil last week.However, I will say to the Minister of State we had better stop kicking the can down the road and include our young people. A very good starting point would be to get them around the table at the commission because that is where the critical point will be.