Erin McGreehan (Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I move amendment No. 1:

To delete all words after “That” and substitute the following: “the Bill be read a second time on 1st July, 2024, to allow for further consideration of the Bill.”

I welcome the Minister of State. I congratulate my colleague, Senator Malcolm Byrne, on his work on it. It is important to have a conversation about how we engage our young people in civic society. I remember waiting to register my vote. I did my leaving certificate when I was 16 years old, so it was over a year later before I even got an opportunity to put my tick in any box. One of the first things I did when I hit 18 years of age that summer’s day was to go to the post office to register to vote. Now, that might just have been a problem with me, but it was important to me because voting is important, and it is important that we engage with young people to show them what it means to vote. It is not the tick in the box. It is not just a number. It is a part of this country and their democracy. It is a part of how we have grown over the past 100 years in this great nation, and it is how we will grow in the next couple of years.

When I am out canvassing, I might see young people coming to the doors and they are often quite shocked when I want to talk to them. They first say that they will go to get their mams and dads, but I ask them for their opinions. Young people are not burdened by the shackles of budgets. They are far more optimistic and open to possibilities. We look at things and say that they cannot be done a certain way whereas young people are much more optimistic and unburdened by barriers than older people. When I am out canvassing or out and about more generally, I often get the best ideas and engagement from younger people.

Senator Malcolm Byrne listed the countries that had already lowered their voting ages. It is important to know that things there did not fall apart when 16-year-olds got the vote. Not all of them vote, of course. Sometimes, even 60-year-olds and 70-year-olds do not bother showing up to vote. However, this is about engaging people in our democracy and getting them to become part of the system. Some young people will be like me and be very interested – registering was the first thing I did when I hit 18 years of age – while others will not, but this is about finding ways to engage everyone, starting with young people.

When I was a member of Louth County Council, there were strategic policy committee, SPC, policy meetings. There were no young people around those tables. I was probably the youngest person there. It is important that people start learning about all of this when they are young. I agree with Senator Malcolm Byrne that we need to find straightforward but meaningful ways of engaging young people in policymaking, not just box ticking or bringing them in and telling them they are great and fantastic. We need to give young people a space where their voices are not only heard, but listened to and acted upon.