Joe Higgins (Dublin West, Socialist Party)
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150. To ask the Minister for Environment, Community and Local Government if he will report on the timeframe for the proposed referendum to reduce the voting age to 16. [35073/13]

Phil Hogan (Carlow-Kilkenny, Fine Gael)
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I provided to the Oireachtas, in this House, the Government response to the first report of the Convention on the Constitution. The Government welcomed that report and accepted the main recommendations of the convention in the report. These included a recommendation that the Constitution should be changed to provide for a voting age of 16 years. The Government committed therefore to holding a referendum before the end of 2015 on a proposal to amend the Constitution to provide for a voting age of 16.

We are now proceeding with preparations for bringing forward the relevant legislation and, as I said last July this will include careful examination of the consequences of such a change across the policy spectrum including for the age of majority.