The right to vote should be extended to 16-year-olds in the Republic of Ireland, according to Green Party senator, Pauline O’Reilly.
Senator O’Reilly made the call in the Seanad this week, following last week’s local elections in Wales which saw 16 and 17-year-olds allowed to vote for the first time.
“If we want to get people engaged in politics, then people need to be engaged as early as possible,” she said. “It needs to go right through our education system, but in order for it to have meaning, young people have to be given a vote, because there is no point in saying ‘Here’s the education for something that might happen in several year’s time’.”
