Jen Cummins
Dublin South-Central · Social Democrats · Ireland
“However, there is an advantage if their family can buy them one and they can continue their school work at home. It is not good enough to say that schools can make up their minds about that. The Department needs to actually decide and give guidance like it does for other things.”
“Circular 0032/2017 has been in existence for almost ten years and in most parts is not enforced. There is no point in issuing a circular if nothing is going to be done about it. I am delighted the Minister has said there will be a working group to review and hopefully strengthen that.”
“I thank the Labour Party for bringing forward this motion. It is very timely. These are the summer months when parents start to think about how we will we stretch our finances to autumn, get everything that we need to ready and then still maybe take a holiday, organise summer camps, etc. The motion is, as stated, very timely.”
“I see it as an absolute disgrace that such a number of people need that support. I welcome that that funding and support is there for those families but I am still shocked that this affects 233,000 children, which is a lot of children, aged between two and 18. I think it goes up to 22 in some cases. There is a digital divide.”
“When parents were told, they had six weeks to pay but most people do not have such a flexible budget to allow them to pay the €160 or however much it is. When things are being reintroduced time needs to be factored in for that. There was an increase in the cost of school transport for families.”
“I will go through a few of the things that I think still present challenges. The capitation grant for schools was increased last year but has still not reached a level which will mean that schools are fully funded. It has not reached the level where it needs to be. In addition, it does not take into consideration the level of inflation.”
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“Will the Minister explain how the sharing part will work? He said he will address student accommodation presently. I will have to step out of the Chamber but I will listen to what he says. All of these things are interlinked. When we are trying to make third level as accessible as possible, it is really important that all aspects are there to support learners but also the universities. It will put pressure on universities if all those aspects are not there. Is there a timeframe as to when the equipment will be in place? We are in the middle of an academic year and the stuff cannot be magicked out of nowhere. I am sure there are public procurement requirements and all of that. Will it be in place for the academic year of 2026-2027?”
“I am concerned we will invest in this, which we should, but then we will not have he students or researchers coming in because student accommodation is unaffordable. I am delighted the Minister is able to put this amount of money into higher education but I am concerned that we will get all the equipment and then we may not have the students because accommodation is so expensive, particularly in urban areas.”
“I am interested to see how that shared portal will work. I understand a lot of this equipment is incredibly expensive but, I assume, very important to have. I would like to hear more about how that will be managed. Are we ensuring our PhD and postdoctoral researchers are being fully supported to be able to work in this area? I refer specifically to those who receive stipends and I am asking whether they are adequate. There is a second element to my question. The Minister recently announced that the rent pressure zones, RPZs, will not apply to private student accommodation. I am very concerned that we will put all this equipment into universities but, at the same time, raise student accommodation prices twice in the next couple of years, out of line with what is happening in the rest of the country.”
“What plans are there to ensure universities have up-to-date and working equipment for the sciences? We discussed this issue following Science Week. I would like to know how universities can be fully funded to ensure they have the most up-to-date equipment. We need our researchers to be working with equipment that is fit for purpose and fit for the future, particularly in the sciences.”
“These children are without services, supports and appropriate school places. They are not thriving. They are basically surviving. What the announcement has done is put fear and frustration in the hearts and minds of school staff, parents and children. What the children deserve is support, respect and an appropriate education. Will the Minister tell me how that will be achieved and guaranteed?”
“On Tuesday, the Minister for Children, Disability and Equality announced that there is to be a complete overhaul of the assessment-of-need process, which, we can all agree, is absolutely not working. Some 18,000 young children are on the waiting list. That is evidence of how ineffective the system is. The announcement was made with no consultation with education staff and there is little or no detail for either education or clinical staff. The timing of the announcement coincided with research from Dublin City University, DCU, on education provider burnout. It comes at a time when parents are still fighting to get an appropriate school place for their children and for assessments of need. Even if they get them, they are then fighting to get the services they are supposed to get.”
“The plan is that the Department will allocate places over the next few days. If it then realises that there is further capacity, is the Department going to reopen the portal so that all of those late applications will be able to be considered as well? We are in one process currently, but an announcement has just been made that will affect the school year after next. It is important not to confuse the two issues because there is huge confusion and fear out there with regard to that. Will the Department be able to open up the portal again so that it can have a true vision of what is actually needed? If an assessment of need is no longer needed, how will schools know what needs a child has?”
“If a child rocks up to a school in September, how will the school forward plan for the needs of that child? How do we make sure that the school is the appropriate school for that child? I am really concerned that we have not got a handle on that. We are now entering into a new phase in terms of how we allocate places when we have not managed the phase we are currently in.”
“My concern is that when the portal closed on 1 October, parents were no longer able to apply. Was that a way of saying that, for example, 600 parents applied for their children through the portal and we were able to provide those places? The vacant places that the Minister of State talks about, and I have raised this previously, are phantom places because if there are children at home without an appropriate school place, it does not matter how many vacant places we have. If they are not appropriate, they are a waste of space and a waste for a child. I am also concerned about the issue of assessment of need. If we are taking away the need for an assessment of need to gain a special educational place but there will be an educational aspect to it, who is going to do that? Are they going to be qualified to do it?”
“I wish to ask about the report on the Department’s forward planning for special education places in 2026-27. When I wrote this question, it was mostly to do with the portal at that time. I am now even more concerned since the announcement in relation to assessment of need by the Minister for children. I am just wondering about those two things. I know I got a letter from the Minister of State earlier this week or late last week with regard to the portal. I am concerned, however, because you still cannot log on and no parent is able to access it. I just want to see how this is going to be done. I know the question echoes previous questions, but I ask it in light of the new assessment of need situation. I thank the Minister of State very much.”
“Rather than chasing headlines and trying to be the best in the world about everything, we need to be realistic and listen to young people and anybody who uses online platforms.”
“How frightening it was for young people then. Some of the children I worked with spoke about being targeted by adults when playing with their friends, supposedly safe in a room. How frightening that is. If they told us that was happening to them when out playing on the road, we would be totally alert, but we are not alert when it happens online. Parents and the Government have to do so much but the default setting for any of the platforms young people go on should ensure safety. It should start with safety, and other things should require opting in. When you get into a car, it is set to be safe; you opt to do stupid things. We should be providing a safety network for anyone who wants to be online, whether a child or an adult. The sooner we have an adult conversation about what needs to be done, the better.”
“I want to focus on young people. I have worked with young people through youth work and through the school completion programme for many decades. Their involvement in the online world is as important to many of them as their real-life existence. During the Covid-19 pandemic, we saw a huge replacement of the physical – being together and playing – with online life. We regulate things. If you go to the cinema, there is an age rating for the film that you are going to watch. If you want to drive a car, you have to be above a minimum age. There are age regulations for online platforms but they never seem to be implemented. I just want to share some examples from when I worked with young people, as late as a year ago and as far back as when children were playing online games on their Xbox or PlayStation, whatever its iteration at the time.”
“If a puppy is failing to thrive, imagine the huge vet bills a family could wrack up trying to save the little thing's life, and then it dies. If children are involved, there will be absolute heartbreak. I am a mother of four and we have had pets that reached the end of their lives. It devastates children, but this is preventable. Deputy Whitmore's Bill sets out to prevent cruelty against poor puppies and their mothers having lives that are absolutely awful. It is a start in that process.”
“This Bill and Deputy Whitmore's work will, I hope, bring closer the reality of people realising that the cute little puppy they are getting may have had a shocking start to life that affects every part of its life. It may mean that the puppy fails to thrive and may die prematurely. I am imagining the number of puppies that will be gifted this Christmas. I am also imagining the joy of somebody getting a little puppy at Christmas - or any time of the year but apparently it happens a lot at Christmas. I do not agree with this because dogs are for life and not for Christmas, as one advertisement used to tell us long ago. When puppies have that shocking start to life, they have a reduced chance of survival.”
“Breeding puppies for profit and forcing mother dogs to be continuously pregnant to produce puppies is just beyond cruel. In the audiovisual room yesterday, Dogs Trust told people about the state of the mother dogs and puppies that come to them when rescued. They told of the horrific conditions that these unscrupulous breeders are keeping the dogs in. I have to say that it was sickening to the stomach. Ireland is supposedly a country that loves its animals but, having heard what we heard yesterday in the audiovisual room, I really doubted that, to be honest. If people knew what was really happening on puppy farms, they would think twice before buying a puppy.”
“I thank my colleague Deputy Jennifer Whitmore for her work on this Bill. Her work in bringing this proposed amendment forward is a step towards ensuring that dogs and puppies are treated correctly. I also thank Dogs Trust and Dog Law Ireland for their work to make sure that dogs are given a chance to be loved and treated properly. As I said yesterday during the briefing in the audiovisual room, how we treat our dogs is so important because they are sentient beings. This is a political issue. In fact, I would say it is a "pawlitical" issue that can no longer be ignored. As my colleagues have all said, Ireland having the horrific title of being the puppy farm capital of Europe is not something that any of us should be proud of.”
“It is devastating for everybody involved that they are not going to be able to maintain the wonderful service they have. What the Department has said is not good enough. It is not good enough either that we had this press release because we are having this debate. The Minister should be doing her job. We should not be over here telling her how to do her and pointing out all that is wrong. It is just not good enough.”
“That is a basic service that a non-verbal child should get. I have learned from the latest press release that there will be no need for an assessment of need to access a special class or special school. What does that mean for a mild general learning disability school? Is this a new way to call these schools catch-all schools? This will be detrimental to the children attending those schools who are thriving and doing so well. The education committee heard from those schools before the summer. We were blown away by their passion and all they had to say about what they do to support those children. Because of what has happened, they now ask how they will support those children. I have bringing attention to this issue, as I said, for a year now.”
“The Minister said we should not be relying on the private system forever. We should not be relying on it at all. We have a public system and that is what we should be relying on. When will people get it? Families have no choice but to access private services. Some parents are able to handle financial cost and others parents are not. Why should they have to pay for a service that the State is, by law, supposed to be providing? The system is broken into smithereens. Parents want the best for their children. I am a parent of four. I want the best for my children, and so does every parent who has contacted me from throughout the country to talk about what they need for their child with additional needs. One parent contacted me and told me her son, who is non-verbal, will not see a speech and language therapist for four or five years.”
“Imagine trying to convince a government that it has to uphold the laws that it rules over. It is like the plot of an eery psychological thriller. Imagine being the parents of a child with additional needs who is trying to access these supports for their child but they are met with blockage after blockage. Parents have enough to be doing to support and parent their child without having to be activists to be able to get the basic legal entitlement for an assessment of need for their child. Parents are exhausted and they feel ignored. They are disappointed and desperate. I have said that so many times in this House in the year since I was elected to the House. I am sick of saying the same thing again and again. These parents are exhausted. They cannot be activists for the things they are entitled to by law. It is unfair, unjust and illegal.”
“We set out our stall a couple of weeks ago, and I would love to see a little bit more in this regard. Praise for apprentices is due but so is the infrastructure that goes around that.”
“To go back to the issue of releasing funding from the National Training Fund, the challenges apprentices face are significant with regard to some structural issues, such as going to Donegal to finish off an electrical apprenticeship or going to Clare to do different apprenticeships. Those sorts of issues are very difficult. We have also heard recently from employers about how much money it costs to release chefs for training days. I would love to see this structure working and this funding coming back in to support these young people and learners, as well as the employers taking on apprentices and the colleges where they are going to do the learning, skills and theory part. We have a real possibility to do a lot with this fund. As others said earlier, I would love to see exactly where the money will go and what the plans are.”
“I think the value of apprenticeships is returning to the level it used to be a number of decades ago. The snobbery is slowly being eroded and people genuinely feel doing an apprenticeship is the fastest way to learn and earn and then be guaranteed a job at the end. I met so many young people who are in college and wondering what they are going to do afterwards. Some of them have degree and a postgraduate qualification but they do not know what to do yet. I have yet to meet an apprentice who wondered what they will do now. They are already working and able to travel with these amazing skills they have learned.”
“I welcome the amendment and accept what the Minister has said on the EU legislation that could facilitate it. It would be great if it was facilitated. I agree with what has been said on apprenticeships. The further and higher education committee has spoken of it at length in recent months. Wonderful witnesses have come in and told us the stories of how amazing they have to be to motivate themselves, get involved with an employer and become an apprentice, and of the hurdles they face to get there. It is in a way easier to apply for a third level college course because you just go on the CAO and apply for whatever level is in question. I know I am slightly going off the general topic here, but I would love if people could log on and be able to apply for apprenticeships in the same way that they apply for a CAO place.”
“I would love any money that is available from the Department to be able to be used for the upgrade of science equipment in as many education settings as the Minister has authority over. As I said at the time, there is no point in people using a Nokia-blockia phone when they should be using the best and newest updated smartphone they can have. It is important. I am not knocking Nokia-blockias, by the way; I had plenty of them when they first came out. When there is a surplus, it is important to use it wisely. While I accept Sinn Féin's amendment, I do not accept it in full because I do not agree that it should not include retrofitting. I am sorry about that.”
“If we are valuing education, particularly in fields like further education and community education, people need to feel as valued as people feel when a brand-new primary school, secondary school or third level institution is being built. If funds are being used for that purpose in this particular context, we recommend that this would be possible. Notwithstanding that, please do not run underutilised budgets. I do not want to tell the Minister how to do his job, but it is so important that this funding used. I do not want us to be back here again in a year or two looking at budgets that have not been fully used when we know there are deficits with regard to people's contracts not being fully fulfilled. When we talked about science recently during Science Week, we spoke about the facilities that are needed.”
“There should not be an underspend in any of this area. The reality is that we have heard over the months since the Minister was appointed about the hopes and dreams of him and his Department. They will only be realised if the full funding for the Department is utilised. The Minister explained why there was an underspend, and that is fair enough. It will be used in these specific circumstances for these things, and I accept that. They need to be outlined clearly. I accept that the amendment provides for "these payments to only relate to training and upskilling and not for any other purpose" and for "these payments to only relate to the construction or reconstruction (not retrofitting) of a premises that is only used for training and educational purposes".”
“We are all learning. We discussed a proposal that funding which had not been used already would be used and put back into buildings and things like that. I said at the time that I have worked in further education buildings which need to be retrofitted. I understand what the Minister is saying. For the learners and teachers in a building that is draughty and cold - it may have ivy coming into it - a retrofitting of the building is so important. It may not be too old. From an environmental point of view, I would like the buildings we have to be kept to the best capacity that they can be kept to. I would like us to be able to make sure that they are maintained. I do not mind whether we use the word "retrofitting" or the word "maintaining". I reiterate the point that I would not like to see surpluses being run again.”
“Will the Taoiseach and Minister for Education and Youth commit today to meeting with the survivors immediately - not before Christmas but immediately - and ensure that these promises in the letter he signed will be delivered with haste and without further delay?”
“I want to speak to the Taoiseach today about the four people who were on hunger strike for 50 days until 10 November. He met with them, and an agreement was reached. He signed the letter outlining the promises that the Government has made to these survivors who were wronged in childhood and are continually wronged in adulthood. Three and a half weeks have passed. There is a new Minister for Education and Youth, and the survivors have written to the Minister asking for a meeting and for the supports to start, but nothing has progressed. The Minister told them that she is not available to meet them until January. I have been notified, as has the Department of Education and Youth, that these people will resume their hunger strike. They are still recovering from the previous strike, and they are still not able to eat properly.”
“I wish to advise the Deputy that according to the Dáil Salient Rulings of the Chair, Nos. 467 and 468, Members should not comment, criticise or make any charges against a person outside the House or an official either by name or in such a way to make him identifiable.”
“Deputy Louis O'Hara - To discuss solar energy developments in rural Ireland and the need for specific planning guidelines. Deputy Pat Buckley - To discuss the ongoing issues with child safeguarding in Scouting Ireland. Deputy Séamus McGrath - To discuss the new school building project proposed for the amalgamation of Shanbally and Ringaskiddy national schools, County Cork. Deputy Gary Gannon - To discuss the crisis facing the prison system. Deputy Sinéad Gibney - To discuss the need for schools in the Kilternan school planning area. Deputy Paul McAuliffe - To discuss the concerns of Dublin Fire Brigade members regarding the national mobilisation and communications system. The matters raised by Deputies Michael Cahill, Colm Burke, Brian Stanley, Sinéad Gibney and Pat Buckley have been selected for discussion.”
“Deputy Paul Murphy - To discuss appropriate funding and resources for the treatment of allergies. Deputy Rory Hearne - To discuss changes to bus networks in Dublin North-West. Deputy Marie Sherlock - To discuss the parents notify system. Deputy Aidan Farrelly - To discuss overcrowding capacity and the status of current and planned capital works at Naas General Hospital. Deputy Colm Burke - To discuss support mechanisms for HSE workers with long Covid. Deputy Barry Ward - To discuss overcapacity and reliability issues on the E1 and E2 bus routes. Deputies Alan Kelly and Conor Sheehan - To discuss the need for a new model 4 hospital in the mid-west region. Deputy Donnchadh Ó Laoghaire - To discuss the tender for the building of Cork Educate Together Secondary School.”
“I wish to advise the House of the following matters in respect of which notice has been given under Standing Order 39 and the name of the Member in each case: Deputy Albert Dolan - To discuss housing voids across local authority housing. Deputy Peter 'Chap' Cleere - To discuss the Kilkenny institute further education and training campus. Deputy Michael Cahill - To discuss the issue of respite beds for children and adults with special needs in Kerry. Deputy Fionntán Ó Súilleabháin - To discuss the roads budget for Wexford county. Deputy Naoise Ó Cearúil - To discuss the reliability of bus services in Kildare North. Deputy Michael Murphy - To discuss the SEAI warmer homes scheme. Deputy Brian Stanley - To discuss the future of Erkina House, Rathdowney, County Laois.”
“The St. Vincent de Paul is expecting 250,000 calls in advance of Christmas this year. It outlines that one-parent families and low-income workers, as well as people with disabilities and carers, are those who are most likely not to be able to afford the basics. St. Vincent de Paul has said that it is ready and that it will spend tens of millions of euros supporting people with food, vouchers, groceries, electricity and fuel. As the Taoiseach is aware, I worked in the school completion programme and in youth work for decades. In the communities where I worked, workers will go out to support families coming up to Christmas. I want to know what the Government is doing to make sure that no family has to rely on charity or loans to support their family coming up to Christmas, and also throughout the winter.”
“They said people, including children, are dying as they wait in the queues to see them. These doctors are working with no medicine, no pain relief and no possibility of saving people. Since I was elected almost a year ago, I have received thousands of emails from people begging me to do something. I am sure every Member on the Government side receives the same emails. It is absolutely galling that there is no Government Member other than the Minister of State in the Chamber for this debate. The power lies with the Government to pass the occupied territories Bill. The parties of government made promises in the elections last year but they have done nothing. Are they waiting for more children to be murdered and the genocide to continue? Every minute the Government waits is an absolute shame on every single Member on that side of the House.”
“For years, we have watched mothers on our television screens as they scream, cry and mourn the death of their children. We have seen children and babies covered in blood and dust as they suffer in hospitals with no medical equipment. We have seen tiny bodies covered in white cloths waiting to be buried, their family members rocking them back and forth to ease the absolute horror of holding their dead baby or child. As a mother of four, I cannot imagine holding any of my children dead in my arms. It is every single mother's worst nightmare to have a child die but it is absolutely unimaginable and incomprehensible to hold the body of a child murdered by gunshot or bombs. On the last occasion they were in to brief to us, the doctors from Médecins Sans Frontières told us there is no colour in Gaza. It is just grey.”
“I acknowledge the need for value for money, but there is no value for money for the people who live there. They are seriously stressed. I thank the Minister of State for his response. I will keep pressing on this issue because time is of the essence. People spend a lot of time in their homes. This is totally fixable. If homes are dangerous and if they are stressed in their homes, time is of the essence.”
“I will not outline the total, but one woman has paid in a lot of money to make sure that her home is safe for her children, herself and her husband. The reality is that when these apartments were built, building standards were not upheld. This is a problem of a regulation that was never enforced. We have a number of apartment blocks not only in my constituency but around the country, which now have to be sorted out because there was no enforcement. I do not know how this happened. We are supposed to have regulations for everything, and it seems to not have worked. We have fire regulations, but this water ingress is also happening. The people who live there are taxpayers. They are renters or they own their apartments, and they deserve better.”
“I am happy measures are being put in place and the scheme is coming onstream. However, for these people who are living there, the time is now. How much time does the Government need? When can they access this? The difficulty is the communal areas. If people are not paying in and if everyone is not in the OMC, what seems to be happening is that they are not able to access the remedial fund. When that happens, those areas are not being looked after because there is no one able to do it. What happens then for apartment blocks where the OMC is not as strong as it could be? How will it be supported? I am concerned about the Minister of State's comment that the Government needs to make sure it is value for taxpayers. These people are taxpayers.”
“It is causing them a huge amount of stress. Will the Government provide a clear and publicly published timeline for when this legislation will be passed, when the scheme will be opened and when affected residents can apply? Will the Minister of State guarantee that as part of that scheme no apartment owner or renter will be forced to shoulder the costs of the defects that they now have by ensuring that remediation costs already incurred or levied will be eligible for refund or support under the legacy defects provisions of the scheme?”
“When I met them, what should have been a wonderful place to live in was an extremely stressful place to live in. Will the Government deliver a comprehensive and fully funded statutory remediation scheme for apartment owners and renters? According to parliamentary records, legislation to establish an apartments and duplex defects remediation scheme is being drafted. The Government has approved in principle such a scheme with the aim of covering 100% of the eligible remediation costs for purpose-built apartments and duplexes constructed between 1991 and 2013, but the scheme seems to be unimplemented. These people living in these apartments are not able to access this. I am not going to name them because that would not be fair, but I am happy to talk to the Minister of State afterwards and give him the names.”
“There are people who own their apartments and they have spent a lot of money on these apartments. I do not know if the Minister of State knows my constituency, but Dublin 8 is an area where properties are very expensive. These properties were bought at the height of the boom and they were incredibly expensive. They are gorgeous, but people are frightened to live there. They are at their wits' end. One of things that I remember from that meeting was that one couple said they hated to hear the sound of dripping because they knew that was when something was going to go bad. In their minds, they hear drip, drip, drip all the time. They have buckets, pans and pots trying to gather the water, but they are emptying them all the time. It is causing them absolute stress.”
“They have a wonderful area outside, which could be a communal area, but because it so badly damaged by water and the lack of ability to have any remediation, they are not able to use it. After I visited, a few weeks later, part of that apartment building fell apart. The family who live underneath have twins. They are brand new babies. If it had been warm enough to be out, they could have been sitting out underneath that balcony and they would have been seriously injured or worse. The difficulty is that they are stuck in a situation where they are not able to get this remediation because they do not seem to be able to do it. They have a sinking fund, which is sinking rapidly into things that should be fixed ordinarily. There are developers that still own parts of those apartments. They are not paying money to the owner management company.”
“I raise deeply worrying and entirely unacceptable issues for apartment owners and renters who are experiencing them in my constituency of Dublin South-Central. Let me paint a picture for the Minister of State. When I visited some of these apartment blocks, I saw fire safety hazards and potential for flooding. In another apartment block, I saw water coming into people's homes. This was not from a river. They do not know where this water is coming from. It has dripped into their home so much that it is now forming mould behind cupboards that have to be taken off. It is lifting skirting boards. I have been in their homes, and they invited me in to show me what exactly was going on.”
“They had ideas and notions I had never thought about and they helped me realise I had a lot more thinking to do as a city councillor and now as a TD. They knew their stuff and on top of knowing their stuff, they knew how to communicate it as well. The world will not fall in if 16- and 17-year-olds are given the right to vote. As our briefing document states, it already happens in several other countries. In Argentina and Austria, they have the right to vote in all elections. In Germany, they have the right to vote in European elections and some state elections. What we know is that people who are interested in voting will vote and those who are not interested in voting will not vote and age is not a factor in this.”
“They had an election and I know the outcome but I am not going to say what it was. They were already engaged in primary school. When I was a candidate at that time, I also visited the Solas Project, which is a youth service in Dublin 8 that works with five- to 24-year-olds. They asked candidates to give them a two-minute pitch and then they asked us questions. The questions were really hard and very thorough and they also got to ask us follow-on questions. They did this, with potential politicians and people who were already politicians, in a respectful, intelligent and excellent way. When I became a Dublin city councillor, I had a visit from St. Kilian's German School in Clonskeagh and they gave me a grilling for almost three hours on topics I had not even thought about.”
“When I was a candidate in the local and general elections in 2024, I had many encounters with young people asking me a wide variety of questions, be that at the door or on the road and, indeed, I was sent surveys. I have an example from a primary school, whose students would not be able to vote because they would not have reached the age of 16 but it shows how well our education system is doing to engage young people in the political system. I was sent a survey by St. Brigid's Primary School, the Coombe, and they asked me loads of questions about the local area and how I would improve it if I was elected. They asked me to explain my values and when they got the information from all the candidates, they collated it and their teacher helped them to have an election.”
“I remember we were on Grafton Street giving out information leaflets to passers by on the merits of lowering the voting age. I remember that year clearly because I have a photo - a printed-out photo because I am quite old - of my daughter, who was in a buggy. She is 21 now. This debate has sparked comments that 16- and 17-year-olds are too young to have a clue about voting. I beg to differ, and I will give the House some examples as to why I do not think this is true. I will say, as an aside, that many adults also do not have a clue how to vote or register to vote and have never voted, so this is not an age thing. It is an education and civic society matter.”