Malcolm Noonan (Carlow-Kilkenny, Green Party) | Oireachtas source

There is nothing to stop the electoral commission from making recommendations on any aspect of electoral law, including Seanad electoral law. The point was made by Senator Higgins that the possibility is there. Yes, it is tasked with quite an amount of work. We have already spent five and a half hours on this. We will have had seven and a half hours in total. I absolutely respect the points made by Senator McDowell but there has been considerable time given, quite rightly. At the last session, we discussed quite extensively the reduction of the voting age which is considerably important. There are young people in the Public Gallery this afternoon. It was quite right that we had such an extensive discussion. We have given extensive time to this. I agree with the Senator that it is vitally important.