IRELAND’s Electoral Commission has been asked to look at Scotland’s experience of lowering the voting age from 18 to 16 as part of potential changes to the country’s system.
An Coimisiún Toghcháin – the independent Electoral Commission – is preparing its first annual research programme and has been asked to probe the matter by Ireland’s minister for housing and local government, Darragh O’Brien.
While it is to consult the minister, an Oireachtas committee and others, ultimately the research it decides to undertake is a decision for the commission’s members.
The voting age in Scotland was reduced to 16 ahead of 2014’s independence referendum.
Research carried out by the universities of Edinburgh and Sheffield earlier this year showed younger first-time voters retain a habit of voting in elections and participate in greater numbers than older first-time voters.
In the 2021 Holyrood elections, people under 30 who had been able to vote from age 16 went to the ballots in greater numbers than those enfranchised from age 18, a report found.
Those who were able to vote as a 16 or 17 year-old were also more likely to continue voting into their 20s, researchers said.
The request made by O’Brien arises from a commitment to look at reducing the voting age in the Programme for Government.
The Programme for Government says that the Government would legislate for the commission’s recommendations in advance of the 2024 local elections.
O’Brien has also requested the commission look at scrapping by-elections and replacing them with an alternate list system – one where candidates would be required to provide a list of people who could be co-opted to fill a vacancy should one arise.
He has additionally asked that the use of posters during elections and referendums be included in the commission’s first research programme as well as whether postal voting should be expanded.
The Government had committed to asking the new commission to look at the issue and “consult on placing limitations on the number of posters that can be used or fixing certain locations for their use”.
