Amongst the government's proposed referenda to take place in the next eighteen months is one that will potentially lower the voting age to sixteen. Joe Duffy heard from several enthusiastic secondary school pupils who want to get registered and get voting as soon as possible. First up, seventeen-year-old Hope.
"I feel like we should have as much of a say as other generations. I understand that there are worries… but the process even to register to vote, it's not very straightforward so any immature sixteen-year-olds, I don't believe that they'd be bothered to do it. I feel that different generations have different views and while the older generation in Ireland has every right to vote, they've paid their taxes, they've worked all their life, but they would have a different view on society because of how they could have been raised… They could be voting in an election that would severely impact on us… They wouldn't be around to see the implications of it as much as we would."
Hope feels that at sixteen you're allowed to operate certain vehicles, visit a doctor alone and pick school subjects that may well dictate the course of your life, so why not allow politically engaged sixteen-year-olds a say in how their country is run.
Rachael rang in between classes to agree with Hope and to say that with so much interest in and discussion of politics in her school, voting at sixteen is just a logical step.
"I think it should be lowered to sixteen because when you get to eighteen, it's not like you suddenly get this huge sudden maturity."
Ciarán points out that Scotland has paved the way for this potential change by changing the voting age to sixteen in 2013.
"That's a great example and it's promoting younger children who are going to end up leading the country when they're older and being the Taoiseach and going into politics. It's going to promote more leaders and promote more people in general to be more politically aware which is needed in society… We're studying politics in society and learning so much and being so much more informed now than we were twenty or thirty years ago when people our age weren't even being told about any of this."
Caller Anne disagrees entirely with the teens and voices concerns about understanding the responsibility of being given the vote. She feels also that if the vote is granted to sixteen-year-olds, then they should be seen as adults in all ways, for example by the courts and by the government in terms of child benefit allowances.
"You're either a juvenile or an adult and if you're an adult you take the responsibilities and behave as an adult… It might let them realise the implications of it that there's more to it than just voting. It's not going to make a huge difference to most of them because we only have an election every number of years so how many 16 year olds will be voting anyway."
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