Gerard Craughwell (Independent) | Oireachtas source

I think back to my youth. At 12 years of age, I started my first job. At 15, I ran a bar in a hotel in Lisdoonvarna for the entire season. Before the age of 16, I was working in a pub called The Hog in the Pound in South Molton Street in London. By the time I was just over 16, I was a member of the Armed Forces. To suggest, today, that a 16-year-old would be anything like I was when I was 16 is insanity. They are far more advanced, more with it, more educated and more on top of what is going on in society. I appreciate what my colleague Senator McDowell said. As he is an elder lemon like myself, I should probably take some of what he had to say on board. I will not address those young people down there. They know what they want. I am not afraid of them electing a President. We have seen presidents around the world, some elected, and my God they should not have been allowed out of the house the first day ever, let alone electing them as presidents. I am not afraid of that at all. I would like to see participation.