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AT LEAST 25 TDs and Senators are voting No in the presidential age referendum, including one senior cabinet minister and several government backbenchers.
The referendum proposes to reduce the age at which a citizen is eligible to run for president from 35 to 21 and will also take place next Friday along with the same-sex marriage referendum.
A survey of all 225 Oireachtas members carried out by TheJournal.ie has found that 115 are voting Yes, 25 are voting No, and 6 said they don’t know which way they’ll vote. Four declined to take part and the rest did not respond.
The referendum is being held following a recommendation from the Constitutional Convention last year. Polls indicate that most people intend to vote No on 22 May and the government has been criticised for holding a vote on what few people believe is a pressing matter.
While Fine Gael, Fianna Fáil and Sinn Féin are supporting a Yes vote, Labour has decided not to take a position. However several government backbenchers in both coalition parties have told this website they’ll be voting No.
Labour’s Public Expenditure and Reform Minister Brendan Howlin says he will probably vote No and explained his rationale in a recent interview with TheJournal.ie:
In total, those who told us they are voting No include:
I don’t think a 21 year old would have the capabilities to run the office of the president.
Six Oireachtas members told us they were unsure which way they would be voting in the presidential age referendum, including:
I’m undecided for the presidential. I’ll probably go Yes as well, but I’m a bit undecided.
I think it’s ridiculous that the Government has chosen to hold a referendum on such a trivial issue.
A total of 115 TDs and Senators told us they are voting Yes in the presidential age referendum, including the Socialist deputy Joe Higgins who argued that the eligibility age should be reduced further:
Having an age qualification set at 35 is one of many barriers to getting on the ballot paper. When the referendum Bill on this referendum was in the Dáil the AAA TDs proposed amendments moving all ages for elected office to 18, allowing candidates get on the ballot by nomination of voters and an end to religious oaths for the presidency.
Fine Gael Senator Eamonn Coghlan said that while he might have an issue about a 21 or 22-year-old running for the presidency that’s not what the referendum is about.
“It’s giving eminently gifted academic, political and business persons in their early to mid 30′s the opportunity to run for this office. Equality applies here too,” he said.
Sinn Féin’s 26-year-old Senator Kathryn Reilly, who is the youngest member of the Oireachtas, said it is important that more young people involve themselves in the political process.
“It is so often lamented that young people are so disengaged from the important political decisions that affect their future,” she said.
The Presidential Age referendum must be about giving young people that sense of ownership in another branch of government and as with the marriage referendum, lowering the voting age is another act of equality, this time through political reform.
- with reporting by Órla Ryan
Another week, another apology from Aer Fungus.
Here we go again. The patch on the cable mustn’t have worked.
@john howard: that’s what happens when you use cellotape from Poundworld unfortunately.
Yere playing a blinder this month lads. Well done.
I’ll probably get the jaws chewed off me here, but is it okay if I say that my recent experience with Air Lingus, was first class in both directions. Their staff friendly & helpful & I felt appreciated. Thank you Air Lingus.
@Richard Ahern: but that’s what you paid for as per the Sale of Goods & Supply of Services Act. A lot less than that is becoming their norm.
@Richard Ahern: 5 of us flew with Aer Lingus last Thursday and unfortunately, just an hour before boarding a friend noticed her maiden name on her boarding pass instead of her marriage name. It was panic all stations but the lady at the Aer Lingus ticket desk in T2 was incredibly professional, courteous and very pleasant. She re-issued the boarding pass at no extra cost but it was her lovely manner which impressed us. I’m not anti-Ryanair but they would have charged an extra €46 to do the exact same.
How many technical issues are on the journal today, and they want you to go cashless. Ha ha
Flew to US from Dublin on Friday. Had difficulty accessing Verifly app because I deleted it after my last trip. Several attempts to reactivate Verify app failed, because the QR code link did not work. Had to remove app from phone and install on IPad to get Verifly app to work.After that no problems except that boarding pass could not be sent to mobile.
@Don Hogan: Verifly is absolute garbage. Absolutely no reason they couldn’t have integrated it with the actual app.
Having some year, cancelled flights were only the start
Nothing new. Flew to Barcelona Sunday, flight delayed 90 mins or so. Flew home Sat, flight delayed 2 hours (Ryanair’s was 3.5 I think). Daughter flying to UK today delayed twice so far now 18:45 from 16:55.
I know today is a bank holiday but this is getting ridiculous. Compensation need to be applied earlier, say 30 mins from the airlines and/or airports as this really screws up everything.
have your say